Strikers Beat Scorchers by 51 Runs: Wolvaardt's 83* and Mushangwe's 5 for 11 End Perth's Unbeaten Start

For 14 overs this looked like a normal evening at the WACA for the unbeaten Scorchers. The Strikers were 106 for 3, heading for about 150, and Perth had chased down everything put in front of them at home. Then the last six overs went for 96, and a game that had been drifting turned into one the Scorchers could not reach.

Even 202 needed a good start to chase, and the Scorchers did not get one. Anesu Mushangwe, back in the Strikers side, took Beth Mooney and Sophie Devine in her first over and bowled Katie Mack in her second. Three for 1 from seven balls. Perth never recovered, and the side that had won its first five games lost its sixth by 51 runs.

The Strikers chose to bat and built slowly. Maia Bouchier went in the second over, but Emma de Broughe and Wolvaardt added 76 off 55 balls, de Broughe reaching fifty off 37 with eight fours before Alana King bowled her for 51. McGrath fell for 2 an over later, and at 92 for 3 in the 13th the Scorchers were on top.

Wolvaardt and Madeline Penna changed that. They put on 76 off 36 balls, and when the Strikers took the power surge in the 17th over it went for 40 runs without a wicket, a WBBL record. Penna hit 44 off 19 with six fours and two sixes before she was caught off Devine. Wolvaardt, who had been 21 at the 10-over drinks break, reached fifty off 36 balls and finished on 83 not out off 45, with four sixes. The last four overs went for 22, 18, 11 and 23. The total of 202 for 4 was the highest the Strikers have ever made in the WBBL.

A chase of 203 needed Mooney or Devine, and Mushangwe took both of them in the fourth over: Mooney caught by Bouchier, then Devine for a second-ball duck, caught low by Wolvaardt after a long look from the TV umpire. When Mack was bowled by a slider in the sixth over, the Scorchers were 33 for 3. Freya Kemp hit three sixes in 28 off 15 and Mikayla Hinkley made 41 off 30, but each time a partnership started, a wicket followed, and at 106 for 5 after 13 overs the rate needed was well beyond 13.

With the ball, the Scorchers' day had already gone wrong. Chloe Ainsworth, 4-0-23-1, was the only bowler to go at under seven an over. Lilly Mills' three overs cost 42 and Amy Edgar's two cost 32, and King, so good in the first five games, went for 41. One bad evening does not undo five good ones, but this is the first time this season Perth have been made to chase a big total.

The WACA had its usual pace and carry, and once batters were in, it was a very good surface to hit on. That makes the last six overs of the Strikers' innings the real difference: both sides were around 106 after 13 or 14 overs, and the Strikers then made 96 more where the Scorchers made 45. The ball that got Mack, a slider that skidded on, showed that there was something for wrist-spin that came on quickly, and Mushangwe used it better than anyone.

Mushangwe was not in the side in Hobart on Tuesday. Recalled here, she bowled four overs for 11 runs and took five wickets, the best figures of her career. The two in her first over, Mooney and Devine, were the Scorchers' two biggest names, and they went for 7 and 0. She came back when the Scorchers took the power surge in the 16th over, the moment they had saved for an attack, and bowled King. Ainsworth was her fifth. In a match where 353 runs were scored, she gave away 11.

We leaned to the Scorchers, with some confidence, and got it wrong. We did say the Strikers could post a total Perth had not yet had to chase if Wolvaardt and Penna both got going, and that is exactly what happened: 83 not out and 44 off 19. We called Wolvaardt against King the key contest; King went for 41 in four overs and did not get her. We thought around 160 would be par, and the Strikers beat it by 42. We named Sophie Ecclestone as the bowler who could answer Devine, but she was not among the Strikers' bowlers here; Mushangwe, whom we did not mention, did the job instead.

The Strikers are fourth on six points from five games and host the unbeaten Sixers at Karen Rolton Oval on November 17. The Scorchers stay second on ten points from six, level with the Sixers but having played a game more, and play the Hurricanes on November 19 before going to North Sydney Oval to face the Sixers on November 21.