Brisbane Heat 229 for 7 (G Harris 136*, Edgar 3-31) beat Perth Scorchers 179 for 8 (Mooney 60, Sippel 4-27) by 50 runs
“I don’t know if I could top that,” she said. “I always find North Sydney to be a great ground for a batter, the wickets are quite nice and true surfaces. The boundary here, I back myself in to clear it if I give it a good swing. Might have got a bit of inspiration from Hayley Matthews recently…on what she did, she did tear our Aussie bowling attack apart.”
One of those sixes came during an extraordinary passage of play where she had called for a new bat, but carried on using the one she wanted replaced then crunched the next ball for six as the handle ripped off from the blade. Having replaced the bat, for good measure she also sent the next delivery from Piepa Cleary over the ropes.
“Thought it [the handle] just clicked a little bit and didn’t want to be given nicked off as the ball went past and I didn’t hit the ball,” she said. “When I faced up, I thought it’s probably hanging on, when they get that looser handle they are at their best, they are pinging. Thought I’d still hit it for six, they’d been going miles today…it went for six, so paid off for me then.”
To add to the context of Harris’ ferocious display, she had been 9 off eight balls at the end of the four-over powerplay before she took the attack to Australia team-mate Alana King with three sixes in her first two overs.
Heat’s eventual total was the second highest in WBBL history.
Devine, who came in at No. 3, couldn’t quite get going before picking out deep square leg and Sippel made it three wickets in the 10th to all-but end the contest when she claimed a return catch to remove Maddy Darke and had then had Mooney slicing to short third.