Sydney Thunder opened WBBL|12 with a six-wicket win over the Melbourne Renegades at Junction Oval, chasing 139 with 18 balls to spare. Georgia Voll took 4-26, three of them in a single over, and Anika Learoyd’s 48 drove the chase.
Quick Score Summary
Melbourne Renegades 9-138 (20 overs): Hayley Matthews 45 (30), Georgia Wareham 23 (19), Courtney Webb 22 (24). Thunder bowling: Georgia Voll 4-26, Hannah Darlington 2-29, Sam Bates 1-20, Nadine de Klerk 1-26, Lauren Bell 0-35.
Sydney Thunder 4-140 (17 overs): Anika Learoyd 48 (37), Heather Knight 29* (22), Georgia Voll 25 (18). Renegades bowling: Tayla Vlaeminck 2-23, Tess Flintoff 1-8, Deandra Dottin 1-27.
Result: Sydney Thunder won by 6 wickets (18 balls remaining). Toss: Sydney Thunder, elected to bowl. Player of the Match: Georgia Voll.
At drinks the Renegades were 1-76 and Hayley Matthews was flying. Seven overs later they had lost eight wickets for 43 runs, and with them the game.
Thunder won the toss and bowled. Matthews and Courtney Webb (22 off 24) put on 56 for the first wicket, with Matthews the aggressor, particularly through the leg side. She was dropped twice, but the third chance stuck: first ball after drinks, Lauren Bell held her on the boundary off Hannah Darlington for 45 off 30 balls, with six fours and a six.
That started a slide that never stopped. Captain Sophie Molineux (7 off 13) and Georgia Wareham (23 off 19), both batting higher than they do for Australia, never found their rhythm, and Tess Flintoff went for 1. The Renegades called the Power Surge, the two-over batting powerplay a side can take from the 11th over, for overs 15 and 16 and scored 22 without losing a wicket.
Then Voll returned for the 17th over and removed Chloe Tryon, Deandra Dottin and Wareham for two runs. From 4-117 the hosts were 7-118. A run-out and a wicket for Nadine de Klerk followed, and only an unbeaten last-wicket stand of 19 between Annie Wikman and Tayla Vlaeminck lifted them to 9-138.
Voll’s over made her Player of the Match, but the whole Thunder attack made 138 look under par. Darlington bowled tight, attacked the stumps and was hard to get away, and she was rewarded with two wickets, including Matthews. De Klerk was tidy too.
The bowler who keeps flying under the radar, though, is Sam Bates. Fresh from a strong stint with Trent Rockets in The Hundred, the left-arm spinner bowled her four overs for 20, the most economical full spell of the match. She is an underrated bowler in the same mould as Steve O’Keefe: no fuss, just relentless accuracy.
The pattern was clear. Spin and medium pace were the hardest to get after, while Bell’s extra pace gave the batters something to work with. She went for 35 from her four overs and turned to slower balls and change-ups to fight back, with limited reward.
The chase began briskly, with the Thunder 32-0 after the opening four-over powerplay. Vlaeminck, playing her first WBBL match since November 2021 after years of injuries, looked genuinely fast and hurried both Phoebe Litchfield and Voll. The breakthrough came at the other end, in a wayward over from Flintoff: Voll (25 off 18) was caught behind by Nicole Faltum after a Renegades review. Litchfield followed for 14, caught by Molineux off Dottin, at 2-64.
That brought Learoyd and Heather Knight together, and they took the game away with a stand of 62 off 44 balls. Learoyd batted beautifully, timing the ball powerfully and striking at a good rate. Her lofted drives straight down the ground were the shots of the day on the way to 48 off 37, with nine fours. At the other end, Knight showed all her experience to hold the chase together.
Vlaeminck had the last say for the hosts, bowling Learoyd and having Laura Harris caught in the same over to finish with 2-23 and 15 dot balls. But at 4-127 the target was in sight, and despite those late wickets the Thunder got there with relative ease. De Klerk hit three fours in an unbeaten 12 off 6 to finish it in the 17th over, with Knight 29 not out.
For the Renegades, the lesson is momentum. Every time a partnership began to build, a wicket fell, and the platform from the openers simply leaked away. The positives are Matthews back to her destructive best and Vlaeminck bowling fast again after so long out. For the Thunder, it is a start that backs Wibble’s prediction of a third-place finish.
The Renegades head west to face the Perth Scorchers at the WACA on Saturday 31 October. The Thunder host the Brisbane Heat at Drummoyne Oval on Sunday 1 November.
