Scorchers Beat Thunder by 4 Wickets to Make It Five From Five, Even Without Mooney and Despite Knight's 71

Unbeaten teams are not always the best team on the night. Sometimes they are just the team that does not blink. For most of this game at the WACA, Sydney Thunder had the better of it: Heather Knight played the innings of the match, and when the Scorchers lost five wickets for 47 in the middle of the chase, the Thunder were back in front. Then Chloe Piparo and Chloe Ainsworth, batting at six and eight, scored the last 27 off 18 balls as if there had never been a problem.

That is five wins from five for the Scorchers, and this one came without Beth Mooney, who was not in the XI. For the Thunder, it is a third straight defeat, and the second to the Scorchers in a week.

The bowling did its job at both ends of the Thunder innings. Ainsworth had Georgia Voll caught behind in the first over, Fatima Sana had Phoebe Litchfield caught in the fourth, and the Thunder made only 19 in the four-over powerplay. Then, after a long middle stretch when nothing worked, they closed it out well: Alana King bowled Knight in the 18th over, Devine had Learoyd caught two balls later, and Edgar removed Laura Harris. The Thunder scored 13 in the last 13 balls. Five bowlers took a wicket each.

The chase began with Ines Mckeon, in for Mooney, hitting her first ball for six and being lbw to Samantha Bates on her second. Devine and Katie Mack then put on 79 off 56 balls, and at 86 for 1, with 74 needed off more than ten overs, it looked easy. It did not stay easy. Devine was bowled by Nadine de Klerk for 37, Mack was caught and bowled by Jemma Barsby, Freya Kemp and Mikayla Hinkley fell to a catch and a run-out, and Fatima Sana was bowled by Hannah Darlington for 0. At 133 for 6 in the 16th over, the Scorchers needed 27 off 27. Piparo and Ainsworth needed only 18 balls.

At 18 for 2 in the fourth over, Knight joined Anika Learoyd, and for the next 85 balls they were in control. Knight reached fifty off 36 balls, Learoyd off 41, and their stand of 128 took the Thunder from a poor start to 146 for 2 in the 18th over. A total of 175 looked possible. Instead, three wickets fell in 11 balls, and the Thunder finished with 159. Litchfield, Voll and Harris, who came into the game in such good form, made 16 runs between them.

With the ball, the Thunder were better than in their last two games. De Klerk bowled a maiden, every bowler but Voll took a wicket, and after 15.3 overs they were right back in the game. The run-out of Hinkley was sharp work by de Klerk and Tahlia Wilson. But they gave away 17 extras in the chase, and on a night decided by nine balls, that is the part the Thunder can fix.

The WACA was a good batting pitch with something in it early. Both sides lost a wicket in the first over, and both powerplays were quiet, the Thunder making 19 for 2 and the Scorchers 30 for 1. Once set, batters could hit through the line: Knight hit 12 fours. King bowled Knight with the score on 146, and that was the ball that changed the shape of the game. A total of 160 was par, and that is roughly what both sides made.

Knight's 71 off 46 was the best innings of the game, from the losing side. She came in with the Thunder two down and the Scorchers bowling well, and she did not try to hit her way out of it. She found the gaps and kept the scoring going at more than a run a ball while Learoyd built her own innings at the other end. Her fifty came off 36 balls with nine fours, and after it she sped up. When King bowled her in the 18th over, the Thunder were on 146. Without her, they would not have had a total to defend.

We leaned to the Scorchers, with some confidence, and they won. But the reasons we gave were not quite the reasons it happened. We named Mooney and Devine as the pair in form; Mooney did not play, and Devine made 37 and took a wicket. We named King as one of the best spinners in the competition, and she took the key wicket of Knight. We expected the Thunder bowling to leak, and it held up better than we thought. We said Litchfield and Harris could win it for the Thunder if they got going; they made 13 and 3. We thought around 160 would be a fair total here, and the Thunder made 159. Knight and Learoyd, who we did not single out, very nearly proved us wrong.

The Scorchers stay top with five wins from five and 10 points, two clear of the Sixers, who have played a game fewer. They are at home again on November 14, against the Strikers. The Thunder stay third on four points from five games but have now lost three in a row, and they host the Stars at Drummoyne Oval on November 16.