Perth Scorchers defended a modest 9-124 at Junction Oval on Monday night, bowling the Melbourne Stars out for 109 with 11 balls unused to win by 15 runs. Sophie Devine’s 4-19 led the way, and Alana King’s double-wicket maiden sealed it.
Quick Score Summary
Perth Scorchers 9-124 (20 overs): Alana King 18 (21), Beth Mooney 17 (15), Chloe Ainsworth 16 (17). Stars bowling: Maisy Gibson 2-10, Sophie Day 2-17, Charlie Dean 2-29, Danielle Gibson 1-3, Rhys McKenna 1-18.
Melbourne Stars 109 (18.1 overs): Meg Lanning 41 (36), Amy Jones 18 (16), Charlie Dean 13 (18), Georgia Prestwidge 13 (13). Scorchers bowling: Sophie Devine 4-19, Alana King 3-17, Chloe Ainsworth 1-15, Lilly Mills 1-12, Amy Edgar 1-20.
Result: Perth Scorchers won by 15 runs (Stars all out with 11 balls remaining). Toss: Melbourne Stars, elected to bowl. Player of the Match: Sophie Devine.
For 13 overs, Meg Lanning carried the Stars’ chase almost on her own. Then Amy Edgar came around the wicket and angled one into her pads. The Stars captain flicked it around the corner, straight to Fatima Sana at short fine leg, and was gone for 41 off 36 balls.
Three balls earlier, Charlie Dean had tried to reverse sweep Devine, missed, and been dragged out of her crease by her own momentum. Beth Mooney, standing up to the stumps, had the bails off in a flash. Two wickets without a run added left the Stars 6-79, needing 46 from 41 balls on a surface that got harder to score on with every over.
It was a night when nobody on either side really got going. The Stars won the toss and bowled, and the Scorchers were 0-36 at the end of the powerplay, helped along by a string of wides. After that the wickets fell at a steady clip.
Katie Mack never found her rhythm. Just as she did against Tayla Vlaeminck and Millie Illingworth in the previous game, she looked uneasy against balls just back of a length that moved away, and Kim Garth worked that channel well. Mack eventually tried to pull Sophie Day, and the top edge went straight up for Amy Jones. She made 12 off 17.
Mooney (17 off 15) backed away to cut Danielle Gibson and got a small edge through to Jones, who was up to the stumps. Rhys McKenna’s spell then produced a rarity: a delivery that struck the helmet parked behind the keeper, handing the Scorchers five penalty runs. Freya Kemp threatened briefly, with two fours in a five-ball 10, before McKenna came around the wicket and angled one down leg. Kemp tried to help it on its way and got the faintest touch through to Jones.
Devine (11) went next. She found Annabel Sutherland, who moved around from wide mid-on and dived forward to hold a good catch off Dean. Then the middle order folded against spin. Mikayla Friday was trapped lbw by Day for 3, and her review couldn’t save her. Fatima Sana pulled Maisy Gibson to short midwicket, where Day took the catch. Chloe Piparo got a thin edge sweeping a leg-side ball from the same bowler, giving Jones her fourth catch of the night. From 2-70 the Scorchers had slipped to 7-76: five wickets for six runs.
The Stars’ spinners were excellent. Day (2-17 from four overs), Maisy Gibson (2-10 from three) and Dean (2-29) varied their pace and angles and made the two-paced pitch do the work. The Stars’ discipline wasn’t as tight, though. They gave away 21 extras, including 12 in wides split evenly between Garth and Sutherland, plus those five penalty runs. That is more than the final margin.
Chloe Ainsworth (16) and King (18) rebuilt with a stand of 20 before Dean beat Ainsworth’s loose drive, between bat and pad, to bowl her. King was run out in the final over after a mix-up. The ball cannoned into her pads, she couldn’t get going, and she and Lilly Mills ended up at the same end. Mills’s unbeaten 13 carried the Scorchers to 124. On a true Junction Oval deck that would have looked well short. On this one, with drizzle about, it proved just enough.
The chase started with drama. Ainsworth’s first ball squared up McKenna, and there seemed to be a sound, but the umpire said not out. The Scorchers reviewed, the edge detection showed a spike as the ball passed the bat, and McKenna was gone first ball.
The Scorchers then had a let-off when Mack dropped Jones at deep square leg off Ainsworth before she had scored. Jones hit three fours on her way to 18 off 16, until she sliced Devine to point, where Ainsworth dived to take the catch as the ball curled away. Later in the same over, Sutherland pulled at one that wasn’t really short and picked out Ainsworth at point again, out for a duck. The Stars were 3-30.
Naomi Stalenberg skipped down the pitch and drove King straight back to the bowler for 1. At 4-43, Lanning needed someone to stay with her, and Dean did for a while in a stand of 36. Lanning survived a Scorchers review when King slid one onto her pads, with replays showing an inside edge first. With light rain falling and some balls keeping low, every run was hard work.
After the Dean and Lanning wickets, Danielle Gibson and Georgia Prestwidge kept the Stars alive with 23 for the seventh wicket. Then Devine dropped one short, Gibson went to pull, and Mooney took a smart catch standing up. At 7-102, the Stars needed 23 from 22 balls.
King finished it. In the 18th over, Garth (6) was trapped in front attempting a reverse sweep, a decision the review confirmed, and Maisy Gibson was bowled for a five-ball duck. Prestwidge went for the big sweep off the first ball of the next over and hit Mills straight to Kemp at deep square leg for 13. The Stars’ last four wickets had fallen for seven runs.
Devine, named Player of the Match, kept her method simple. “It was all about trying to get the ball on the stumps,” she told AAP. King’s 3-17 included 15 dot balls, and between them they took seven wickets for 36 runs from eight overs.
The Scorchers are two from two, but this was a win built on bowling and fielding rather than batting. Losing five wickets for six runs in the middle overs, and Mack’s ongoing trouble against the moving ball, are worth watching. The Stars, beaten for the second match running, bowled well enough to win. Their batting leaned on Lanning again, and 21 extras is the clearest fix.
The Scorchers face the Sydney Thunder at Drummoyne Oval on Thursday 5 November. The Stars host the Sydney Sixers at Junction Oval on Friday 6 November.
