Sixers Beat Thunder by 9 Runs (DLS) — Gardner's 25-Ball Storm, Then Bray's Four Wickets, Keep the Derby Blue

A Sydney derby on a small ground, with rain hanging about, was always likely to be decided by whoever made the most of a few overs. The Sixers had 55 for 1 after nine overs when the weather came. When it cleared, the game had shrunk to 16 overs, and the Sixers had seven of them left. They used them to score 107 runs.

That was the match, though the Thunder did not accept it quietly. Chasing a revised 168, they had reached 108 in the 11th over with only four down and Laura Harris swinging hard. Then Caoimhe Bray took two wickets in that over, and the last six Thunder wickets fell for 50. The Sixers have four wins from four. The Thunder have two from four.

The start was delayed by rain and a wet outfield, and the game was first cut to 19 overs a side. Lauren Bell had Sophia Dunkley caught behind for 15 in the fourth over, and Perry and Melie Kerr took the Sixers to 55 for 1 at the end of the ninth when the rain came back. When play resumed, it was 16 overs a side. Kerr was retired out on 14 to send in Gardner, and the decision paid off at once.

Gardner reached fifty off 18 balls, with five fours and four sixes, and she and Perry put on 97 off 39 balls without being separated. Perry, quieter by comparison, still made 59 not out off 41 balls with 11 fours. The batting powerplay, taken in the 13th over, went for 19 runs. Samantha Bates, who the Thunder hoped would hold Gardner back early, went for 48 in her four overs.

With the ball, Bray did the damage twice. She bowled Phoebe Litchfield in the second over and had Georgia Voll caught by Kerr in the fourth, and at 34 for 3 the Thunder were behind before they had started. Then, with the Thunder rallying, she came back for the 11th over and removed Nadine de Klerk and Harris, both caught. Gardner then took two wickets in the 12th over, Sarah Coyte bowled Hannah Darlington, and Perry and Gardner each ran someone out.

The Thunder chose to bowl, and for nine overs that looked right. After the rain, nothing their bowlers tried worked. Seven overs costing 107 is hard to come back from in a full game, and in a 16-over chase it meant a required rate above ten from the first ball.

They gave it a real go. Heather Knight fell for 6, caught by Gardner off Coyte, but de Klerk and Harris added 52 off 16 balls for the fifth wicket, and when de Klerk fell at 108 in the 11th over the Thunder needed 60 off 35 balls. Harris hit four sixes in her 10 balls. When she and de Klerk fell in the same over, the lower order kept swinging, and Bell and Bates got them to 158, but the last wicket went with three balls left and ten runs still needed.

Rain shaped everything. The Sixers' innings was split in two, and the shorter game forced both sides to attack. Once the rain stopped the pitch played well and the short boundaries at North Sydney Oval did the rest: 320 runs were scored in 31.3 overs. Bray's wickets came from attacking lengths, and the Thunder lost six batters to catches and two to run-outs as they chased the rate.

64 not out off 25 balls, five fours and five sixes, and then 2 for 37 with the ball, plus the catch that removed Knight and a hand in Bates's run-out to finish the game. Gardner came in at the moment the match was being remade, with seven overs left in a game that had just lost three, and she simply played as if she had been waiting for it. A week after her 124 against the Hurricanes, this was another reminder of how quickly she can turn a match.

We leaned to the Sixers, narrowly, and they won by nine runs on DLS. We said Gardner was the player most likely to take the game away with the bat in six overs, and that the Thunder might want Voll and Bates at her before she settled; Gardner did exactly that, and Bates went for 48. We picked Knight against Gardner as the match-up to watch, and Gardner caught her for 6. We also expected Bray and Bell to matter with the new ball; Bell took the only early Sixers wicket, and Bray finished with four. Our predicted Thunder XI was the one that played.

The Sixers are second on the table with four wins from four, behind the Scorchers on net run rate. They play the Renegades at Junction Oval on November 12. The Thunder, third with two wins, go to the WACA to face the unbeaten Scorchers on November 11.