Amanda-Jade Wellington conjured the greatest bowling performance in WBBL history to defeat the heat putting the Adelaide Strikers into Thursday’s challenger final.
Amanda-Jade Wellington conjured the greatest bowling performance in WBBL history to put Brisbane Heat in a spin and fire the Adelaide Strikers into Thursday’s challenger final against the Melbourne Renegades.
Wellington finished with the astonishing figures of 5-8 off four overs, her vicious turn and alluring flight on a conducive Adelaide Oval deck completely bamboozling the Heat’s top and middle order.
The previous best figures in a WBBL match was Molly Strano’s 5-15, six summers ago.
With her third delivery, Wellington had the dangerous but out-of-sorts Grace Harris stumped and was regularly unplayable from that moment onwards, snaring Mikayla Hinkley and Brisbane captain Jess Jonassen cheaply, and Delissa Kimmince and Georgia Voll off back-to-back deliveries.
Wellington reduced the Heat to 7-52 before a career-best cameo from Nicola Hancock (40) saw the visitors add 51 off the last five overs and climb to 8-114.
It was never enough, especially with Strikers opener Katie Mack continuing the golden form of her life .
Her unbeaten 50 – her fifth i n her past seven innings – steered Adelaide to safety with 21 balls to spare and exacted some retribution from losing the final to the Heat two seasons ago.
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE
Having earlier witnessed the carnage inflicted by spin, Jonassen, the competition’s leading wicket-taker and a renowned powerplay specialist, arguably missed a trick by not introducing her left-arm tweakers into the attack until the sixth over.
Wellington’s opposite number, Indian wrist-spinner Poonam Yadav, also had to wait until the eighth over to have a trundle and she had an immediate impact, trapping Laura Wolvaardt lbw for 16.
It’s fair to say, though, the damage was already done.
HARRIS HUSHED
Wellington was the magic maker but the table had been set in a one-sided powerplay.
Megan Schutt sent down 13 dots in her first three overs to the normally attacking Harris, taking full advantage of a historically favourable head-to-head match-up.
Harris simply could not get moving, while from the River End, Darcie Brown justified her recall, snaring in-form Georgia Redmayne (1) who became starved of strike, as the miserly Strikers’ new-ball bowlers chalked up 26 dots in the first six pivotal overs.
Originally published as WBBL Finals: Adelaide Strikers defeat Brisbane Heat and move on to challenger final
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