Perth Scorchers opened their WBBL|12 campaign with a nine-wicket demolition of the Melbourne Renegades at the WACA Ground, chasing 137 with 39 balls to spare as captain Beth Mooney (58 not out) and Sophie Devine (47 not out) shared an unbroken stand of 124.
Quick Score Summary
Melbourne Renegades 6-136 (20 overs): Georgia Wareham 62 (39), Nicole Faltum 48 (49), Hayley Matthews 7 (9). Perth Scorchers bowling: Chloe Ainsworth 2-22, Fatima Sana 2-27, Alana King 1-35, Sophie Devine 1-21.
Perth Scorchers 1-138 (13.3 overs): Beth Mooney 58* (40), Sophie Devine 47* (32), Katie Mack 9 (11). Melbourne Renegades bowling: Tayla Vlaeminck 1-29, Milly Illingworth 0-23 (2 overs).
Result: Perth Scorchers won by 9 wickets (39 balls remaining). Toss: Perth Scorchers, elected to bowl. Player of the Match: Beth Mooney.
By the time Devine heaved Georgia Wareham for back-to-back sixes to end it, the result had long been settled. The damage was done in the first half-hour, when Perth’s new-ball bowlers took four wickets for five runs and left the Renegades 4-20 inside six overs.
Mooney won the toss and bowled, and Chloe Ainsworth struck first. Hayley Matthews skied her to midwicket, where Freya Kemp took the catch, and the West Indian was gone for 7. Three balls later Fatima Sana had her first WBBL wicket: Renegades captain Sophie Molineux walked forward and picked out Kemp again, this time at mid-off, for 1.
Ainsworth then produced the ball of the innings. On a good length and angling in slightly, it beat Courtney Webb’s cross-batted swing and hit middle stump. Alana King joined the party with her first delivery, trapping Tess Flintoff in front for 2. The Renegades struggled all through the powerplay, and their batters never looked sure how to take Ainsworth on. Her three new-ball overs cost just 12.
Sana’s debut deserves its own mention. The Pakistan captain, in her first WBBL season, looked at home immediately: her opening two overs cost seven runs, including a maiden, and she returned at the death to finish with 2-27.
From 4-20, Nicole Faltum and Wareham rebuilt with a 109-run fifth-wicket stand off 84 balls. Faltum was busy at the crease, trying to break up the bowling with inventive ramps and reverse sweeps and to lift a run rate that had stalled. Boundaries were hard to come by, though: her 48 came from 49 balls with just four fours.
Wareham was the aggressor. The Renegades took the Power Surge (the two-over block when only two fielders are allowed outside the circle) at the start of the 16th over, and on its first ball Wareham drove Sana down the ground and was caught at long-on. The replay showed Sana had overstepped, so the catch didn’t count, and Wareham kept attacking. She regularly found the rope with power, hitting eight fours and a six in a 39-ball 62.
It was Devine who finally broke the stand. A full toss drifted onto Wareham’s pads, she flicked it, and Sana took the catch at fine leg off the last ball of the 19th over. Two balls from the end of the innings, Faltum went for one big swing to bring up her fifty and was bowled by Sana for 48.
The Renegades finished on 6-136. It was under par, but given where they had been at the six-over mark, it was at least something to bowl at.
The Renegades opened with genuine pace from both ends in Tayla Vlaeminck and Milly Illingworth, a modern equivalent of Brett Lee and Shaun Tait. They nearly struck early. Katie Mack, on 2, skied Illingworth over mid-on, and Chloe Tryon, running back, couldn’t hold the chance. Vlaeminck soon made up for it with a superb yorker that bowled Mack for 9, leaving Perth 1-14 in the third over.
That was as good as it got for the visitors. Illingworth struggled with her line in her second over and looked to have Mooney caught behind, but the appeal was turned down. Vlaeminck had similar trouble with her radar in her third over. Pace is a weapon only when it is on target, and the Renegades gave away 24 extras: 15 wides, two no-balls and seven leg-byes. That made extras Perth’s third-highest contributor. The Scorchers were 1-60 after seven overs, and the chase was effectively over.
Mooney and Devine then did what they have done to attacks for years, mixing power with placement and finding the boundary with ease. Mooney’s 58 not out came from 40 balls with nine fours and earned her Player of the Match. Devine’s 47 not out from 32 included three sixes, two of them to finish the game in style off Wareham in the 14th over.
For Perth, this was a statement start. Ainsworth was sharp, Sana adds a new edge to the attack, and the Mooney-Devine partnership remains as dangerous as any in the league.
The Renegades are 0-2 after their six-wicket loss to the Sydney Thunder in the season opener, and the warning signs are clear. Four powerplay wickets down and 17 wides and no-balls will lose you most games in this competition. Still, there are positives: the Wareham-Faltum partnership showed the middle order can fight, and Vlaeminck’s yorker was a reminder of what this attack can do when it is on target.
The Scorchers head to Junction Oval to face the Melbourne Stars on Monday 2 November. The Renegades travel to Ninja Stadium to meet the defending champions, the Hobart Hurricanes, on Wednesday 4 November.
