Lanning ton, Garth four-fer seals 111-run (DLS) win for Stars
Hobart Hurricanes extended their perfect start in WBBL 2025 to a fifth straight game, beating the Melbourne Renegades by six wickets in a rain-affected match at North Sydney Oval. The Renegades posted 155, thanks largely to a fiery 26-ball 41 from Georgia Wareham, after she and Alice Capsey put on a 56-run partnership in the middle. But after a couple of delays for rain and lightning, the Hurricanes chased down a DLS-adjusted target of 106 with an over to spare.
The Hurricanes were on the money right from the get go when Molly Strano struck twice to remove the openers. The Renegades slipped to 23 for 3 in the fourth over when Sophie Molineux was dismissed. It was then that the pair of Wareham and Capsey put the innings back together. Wareham was originally adjudged run-out when on 6 only for Hurricanes 'keeper Lizelle Lee to concede that she had dropped the ball while trying to effect the run-out.
Capsey fell for 37 before Wareham fell in the following over but not before hitting four consecutive boundaries and a six off Hayley Silver-Holmes. It opened the doors once more for the Hurricanes with Heather Graham then producing a miserly spell and finishing with 3 for 23 as Renegades lost 6 for 49 to finish with a sub-par score.
Hurricanes lost the in-form Lee early in the chase and Nat Sciver-Brunt fell for a three-ball duck. But Nicola Carey and Danielle Wyatt-Hodge ensured the Hurricanes were constantly above the asking rate. The former hit 39 off 29 including six boundaries. Graham also pitched in with the bat with an important 14 while Elyse Villani struck 12 from 5 balls, including a six to win the game after the Hurricanes had returned from another delay needing 12 off 10.
Brief scores: Melbourne Renegades 155 in 19.3 overs (Georgia Wareham 41; Heather Graham 3-23) lost to Hobart Hurricanes 106/4 in 12 overs (Nicola Carey 39; Georgia Wareham 2-17) by six wickets (DLS Method)
Meg Lanning smashed an imperious 135 as the Melbourne Stars handed the Sydney Sixers a brutal 111-run (DLS) defeat at North Sydney Oval. Her 74-ball masterpiece, studded with 26 boundaries (22 fours, four sixes) - the most ever in a WBBL innings - powered the Stars to 219, the third-highest total in the tournament's history. The drama only escalated in the rain-affected chase, where the Sixers were skittled for 42 while pursuing a revised target, with Kim Garth ripping through them for scarcely believable figures of 4 for 3. The Stars climbed to third with their second win in four games, boosted by a hefty NRR of +3.269.
Having opted to chase in the second fixture of the double-header, the Sixers were made to toil as Lanning and Sophie McKenna put on a commanding 159-run opening stand. McKenna's 50 off 34 was played in the slipstream of Lanning's brilliance, and while a couple of late wickets - including that of Lanning's in the final over -momentarily slowed the scoring, nothing stopped the Stars from piling on a towering total.
With a mountain on the board, the Stars wasted no time in burying the Sixers beneath it. Garth tore through the top order in a stunning burst, removing Sophia Dunkley and Alyssa Healy with her first two balls in a wicket-maiden. She then knocked over Ellyse Perry with the first delivery of her next over and also accounted for Elsa Hunter, leaving the Sixers reeling at 21 for 4 when rain stopped play.
Resuming with a 10-over chase, the Sixers lost three wickets in seven balls to slide to 27 for 7, flirting dangerously with the lowest total in WBBL history - the Stars' own 29 vs Adelaide Strikers two years ago. They avoided that particular indignity, but only just, finishing with an embarrassing 42 all out to cap a night thoroughly dominated by Lanning and the Stars.
Brief scores: Melbourne Stars 219/4 in 20 overs (Meg Lanning 135, Rhys McKenna 50; Ash Gardner 1-36) beat Sydney Sixers 42 in 7.4 overs (Kim Garth 4-3, Sophie Day 2-6) by 111 runs (DLS Method)
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