Thunder hold nerve in tricky conditions to close in on home grand final

AAP

20-Nov-2024 • 19 hrs ago

Sydney Thunder 112 for 6 (Wilson 33, Learoyd 31*, Kapp 3-20) beat Melbourne Stars 108 for 9 (Darlington 3-26) by four wickets

Sydney Thunder are one win away from their third WBBL grand final, after scratching home to a tense final-over victory against Melbourne Stars.

After Hannah Darlington starred with the ball to keep the last-placed Stars to 108 for 9, she was forced to hit the winning runs late with two balls and four wickets to spare.

The win means if Thunder beat the second-placed Melbourne Renegades in their final-round match on Saturday, they will finish first. That would automatically qualify them for the final on December 1, and giving them hosting rights as the top-ranked team.

A loss to Renegades would likely mean they finish second or third, and have to go through at least one knockout match in order to reach the final.

Wednesday’s result continued a horror season for Stars, who have won only two of eight matches and sit last on the ladder.

But the match was not as easy as it first appeared it would be for Thunder on a difficult Drummoyne Oval wicket. They slumped to 15 for 3 in the third over of their chase with Marizanne Kapp bagging all three wickets to leave Thunder in serious trouble

Thunder then fell to 38 for 4 after eight overs, before Tahlia Wilson and Anika Learoyd steadied the ship. The pair got the equation down to 23 off 20 balls, before Wilson got too aggressive and was caught trying to take on Kim Garth on 33.

Stars then had chances to run Learoyd out and have her caught on the boundary, but missed both and eight runs were eventually required off the last over. Learoyd hit the first ball for two and the next for four, before a single allowed Darlington to finish the job for the hosts.

Darlington had earlier claimed figures of 3 for 26 from her four overs, with four of those runs coming from an overthrow. She cramped a cutting Meg Lanning and bowled her with a smart off-cutter for 12, and also had Kapp sky a ball to cover next over.

Athapaththu was also miserly with her 2 for 12 from four overs and also produced a direct-hit run out in the field to remove Tess Flintoff. Ultimately that helped set up the win as Thunder close in on their first grand final since their 2020 title success.