Melbourne Stars opened WBBL|12 by knocking off the defending champions, beating Hobart Hurricanes by 18 runs at Junction Oval as Meg Lanning (71) and Player of the Match Annabel Sutherland (57 and 3-34) took the game away.
Quick Score Summary
Melbourne Stars 4-192 (20 overs): Meg Lanning 71 (52), Annabel Sutherland 57 (36), Dani Gibson 22* (11). Hurricanes bowling: Heather Graham 2-31, Chinelle Henry 1-25, Lauren Smith 1-30.
Hobart Hurricanes 8-174 (20 overs): Lizelle Lee 57 (33), Nicola Carey 32 (25), Rachel Trenaman 24 (17). Stars bowling: Annabel Sutherland 3-34, Dani Gibson 2-25, Kim Garth 2-36, Charlie Dean 1-13.
Result: Melbourne Stars won by 18 runs. Toss: Hobart Hurricanes, elected to bowl. Player of the Match: Annabel Sutherland.
The night tilted for good with the first ball of the 15th over. Hobart were 4-138, needing 55 from 35 balls with Heather Graham set, when Charlie Dean slid one through to bowl the Hurricanes vice-captain. Dean’s over cost two, the asking rate climbed past 10 an over, and the chase never found its rhythm again.
That it came down to Dean says plenty. She was the surprise pick of the Stars attack, finishing with 1-13 from four overs, including 14 dot balls. The rest of the attack was expensive: Kim Garth went at 9 an over, Sutherland 8.5 and Dani Gibson 8.33, while Sophie Day, Maisy Gibson and Carly Leeson all conceded more than 11 an over. Dean’s off-spin gave Lanning somewhere reliable to turn while others leaked.
The platform had been built much earlier. Sent in after Hobart won the toss, the Stars lost Rhys McKenna (13 off 10) in the third over and Amy Jones, stumped by Lizelle Lee off Lauren Smith, in the seventh, leaving them 2-51. From there Lanning and Sutherland added 109 from 66 balls for the third wicket, and the innings was never in danger.
Lanning, reappointed captain after Sutherland stepped down from the role, held the innings together with 71 from 52 balls and 10 fours, her 35th WBBL half-century. She looks like a player who relishes the job again: delivering, and taking ownership of the innings rather than simply occupying the crease.
Sutherland, by contrast, looked freer without the captaincy. Her 57 from 36 balls included five fours and two sixes, and she scored at better than a run a ball from the moment she arrived. With the weight of leadership lifted, she batted like the destructive strokemaker Australia knows.
Graham, playing her 150th WBBL match, finally broke through in the 18th over, trapping Lanning and then Sutherland lbw within four balls. The damage was mostly done, but removing the set pair took some of the sting out of the final flurry. Dani Gibson still clubbed 22 not out from 11 balls, and Garth, batting at No. 6, well above where she bats for Australia, added a brisk 6 not out as the Stars reached 4-192. It was their highest total at the venue and against the Hurricanes.
That was well above par, and Hobart’s bowling made it easier than it should have been. The attack was a little wayward and rarely troubled the Stars batters, conceding 16 extras, 13 of them wides, and every bowler went at more than 7.5 an over. Captain Nicola Carey’s three overs cost 41. Teenage quick Ira Aery went for 0-24 from two overs, but she looks a promising talent the Hurricanes should keep backing.
Hobart needed a record chase at Junction Oval, and for 10 overs they looked capable of it. Garth struck first, swinging the new ball and then beating Chamari Athapaththu with a well-disguised slower ball to bowl her for 10. It was a reminder of how dangerous Garth is when the ball moves, even if five wides crept into her opening two overs.
Lee kept swinging regardless. Her 57 from 33 balls, with six fours and three sixes, continued her habit of big hitting, and with Rachel Trenaman timing the ball sweetly for 24 from 17, the pair added 59 for the second wicket. Hobart were 2-103 at the halfway mark, right on the rate.
Day bore the brunt. Her two overs cost 28 without a wicket, and she was ineffective on the night; the Stars will want more from her as the season unfolds. But Sutherland removed Trenaman, caught by McKenna, and Garth returned to have Lee caught by Lanning at short cover in the 11th over. Carey (32 from 25) and Graham (20 from 15) kept Hobart in touch until Dean’s intervention.
After that it was a mopping-up job. Dani Gibson bowled Maddy Green, Sutherland took two wickets for two runs in the 19th over, and Gibson had Lauren Smith stumped in the last as Hobart finished on 8-174. Jones finished with two stumpings to go with Lanning’s catch and Dean’s.
For the Stars, the template is clear: Lanning anchoring, Sutherland unleashed and Dean controlling the middle overs. The question is the support bowling, which leaked too freely once Lee got going.
For Hobart, the positives were Lee’s form and a chase that stayed alive for 14 overs despite missing Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Nat Sciver-Brunt and Linsey Smith, who was ruled out with a quad injury the day before.
The Stars head to Karen Rolton Oval to face Adelaide Strikers on Saturday 31 October, while the Hurricanes meet Sydney Sixers at Drummoyne Oval on Sunday 1 November.
