The Sydney Sixers beat the Melbourne Stars by one run at Junction Oval on Friday night. They defended 5-160 when Georgia Prestwidge could only scramble two off the final ball, and Ellyse Perry’s unbeaten 84 from 57 balls made the difference.
Quick Score Summary
Sydney Sixers 5-160 (20 overs): Ellyse Perry 84* (57), Ashleigh Gardner 34 (23), Erin Burns 29 (21). Stars bowling: Sophie Day 1-20, Maisy Gibson 1-18 (2 overs), Charlie Dean 1-27, Annabel Sutherland 1-34.
Melbourne Stars 7-159 (20 overs): Danielle Gibson 31 (20), Amy Jones 28 (26), Charlie Dean 25 (21). Sixers bowling: Frankie Nicklin 1-10 (2 overs), Ellyse Perry 1-5 (1 over), Amelia Kerr 1-21 (3 overs), Sarah Coyte 1-27 (3 overs), Lauren Cheatle 1-29, Ashleigh Gardner 1-37.
Result: Sydney Sixers won by 1 run (0 balls remaining). Toss: Sydney Sixers, elected to bat. Player of the Match: Ellyse Perry
The Stars needed four from the last ball. Georgia Prestwidge swung hard at Sarah Coyte and could only run two. That was the margin: one run, after a night when the Stars let the game slip in the field and then almost won it back with the bat.
The Sixers won the toss and batted, and Charlie Dean found some good turn in her opening over, which cost a single. Sophie Day struck in the third when Sophia Dunkley backed away and cut hard. Kim Garth dived to her left at point and held a good catch, and Dunkley was gone for 1. Amelia Kerr followed for 3 in the fifth over, clearing her front leg to slog Maisy Gibson through the leg side, straight to Day at midwicket. At 2-25, the Sixers needed someone to take charge.
Ashleigh Gardner did exactly that. She hit some powerful blows, including a big six straight down the ground, and pulled a short ball from Danielle Gibson square and over the fence. Perry got in on the act too, hitting Gibson over the midwicket boundary. The pair added 67 from 45 balls, and at the halfway mark the Sixers had a decent run rate, only two wickets down and Gardner set up for a big second half.
Then, out of nowhere, Gardner was gone. She skipped down to Dean, missed, and Amy Jones whipped the bails off. Gardner had been playing so well for her 34 from 23 balls, and Dean, with 1-14 from three overs at that point, had been the pick of the Stars’ bowlers. Two overs later Annabel Sutherland bowled Alice Capsey for 3. Capsey was stuck on the crease, played the wrong line and lost the top of off stump. At 4-98 in the 14th over, the Stars had the upper hand.
They let it go in the field. With Perry closing in on her fifty, she hit Dean to midwicket, where Garth dropped a catch that should have been taken. It was not the way Perry would have liked to bring up her half-century. On 52 she was dropped again, hitting Sutherland to wide long-on, where Dean spilled the catch on the boundary and rolled over the rope. Erin Burns then got a let-off on the midwicket boundary off Sutherland. Prestwidge leapt more to stop the six than to take the catch, and although she got a hand to it, the ball touched the rope for four.
Perry made the Stars pay. She and Burns added 62 from 37 balls, Perry scoring 32 of them from 16 deliveries, and she finished 84 not out from 57 with 13 fours and a six. Burns was run out on the last ball of the innings, short of her ground going back for a second, for 29 from 21. Day was the Stars’ most economical bowler, with 1-20 from four overs and 14 dot balls. A 13-run 18th over took some of the shine off Dean’s figures, which ended at 1-27.
A total of 160 looked about par, and with even one of those chances held, the Stars could have kept the Sixers further below it. In a game decided by a single run, the drops were what cost them.
The chase started badly. Lauren Cheatle took a wicket with the first ball, a perfect inswinger from the left-armer that came back between Rhys McKenna’s bat and pad and hit the stumps: a golden duck. Cheatle nearly had another when Jones drove hard straight back at her, but the half chance deflected off her hands. Her opening two overs, including a maiden, went for only 11.
Meg Lanning fell for 2 in the fifth over, trapped lbw by Kerr while attempting a sweep. Lanning reviewed, but the replay showed the ball pitching in line, hitting in line and going on to hit the stumps, so the Stars lost their review. Sutherland looked good for 22 from 15 balls, including a six, until she hit Perry to cover, where Dunkley came in and took a good catch low down while sliding. Perry bowled just one over, and it cost five runs. Jones then played all around a Frankie Nicklin delivery and was bowled for 28. At 4-62 after nine overs, the Stars were falling behind the rate.
Naomi Stalenberg and Dean added 35 together before an untidy run-out ended the stand. Stalenberg mis-hit the ball and it rolled just off to the leg side. They set off for a run, and Capsey picked it up and fired it at the bowler’s end. A direct hit would have run Stalenberg out by half the pitch. It missed, but Kerr gathered it and took the bails off anyway. Stalenberg went for 19.
Danielle Gibson gave the Stars a bit of a chance with a few boundaries, and Dean worked her way to 25. Then Dean tried to reverse sweep Gardner and the ball cannoned into her pad. The umpire gave it not out, so Gardner reviewed. The ball landed outside off but hit her in line and would have gone on to hit the stumps, so Dean was out. That left the Stars needing 25 from 18 balls with four wickets in hand, and it was going to take Gibson to get them home.
With 17 needed from 12 balls, it could have gone either way: a couple of good strikes or a wicket would decide it. Prestwidge, on 15, went to pull Gardner, skied the ball and was dropped by Eva Ragg, and the Stars came into the final over needing eight from six. Coyte had the ball, and her second delivery decided the game. Gibson went for the midwicket boundary and Kerr caught her there, for 31 from 20 balls. Momentum was back with the Sixers. The Stars needed four from two, then four from one, and Prestwidge, unbeaten on 21 from 13, could manage only two.
For the Sixers it was a win built on their captain and a bowling attack where six different bowlers each took a wicket. It was a scrappy one, though: they bowled eight wides, a lot of free runs to give away in a game decided by one. They’re now three from three and unbeaten, backing up the second-place finish Wibble Sports predicted for them before the season. Their next test is a Sydney derby against the Sydney Thunder at North Sydney Oval on Sunday 8 November.
The Stars will feel this one for a while. Their batting depth showed real fight, with five batters making between 19 and 31, and Day’s spell was the best of the night. But a team that drops Perry twice is asking to lose. They play the Perth Scorchers at the same ground later on Sunday 8 November, and they’ll need to hold their catches against the competition’s other unbeaten side.
