Leys and Sixers burn Scorchers in WBBL final

The Gunnedah product wasn’t required to bat but took a good catch to dismiss danger Scorchers opener Elyse Villani (23 off 20).

It was a crucial breakthrough, and one of the turning points of the game, with Villani starting to find the rope as and she and opening partner Nicole Bolton looked to be taking control of the run chase.

The Scorchers were chasing just 125 for victory after the Sixers failed to capitalise on a great start.

They were 1-40 at the end of the powerplay, and then 2-68 at the half-way point but could manage only 58 off their second 10 overs, the innings tailing off after the dismissal of skipper Alyssa Healy.

At one stage the Sixers lost 3-15 and in the five overs after Healy’s departure they scored just 17 runs, some late crisp hitting from Marizanne Kapp getting them to 5-124.

Kapp then dropped a caught and bowled chance in the first over of the Scorchers’ innings. It looked like it might be costly, but on the final ball of the powerplay Villani holed out to Leys at long-on off player of the final Sarah Aley..

From there the Sixers just seemed to be able to manufacture a wicket as the Scorchers were starting to build momentum, and as the home side had done earlier restricted the scoring virtually to singles from the 10^th to about 18^th overs.

Still in Twenty20 it’s not over until the final ball, and heading into the last over the Scorchers needed 16, Katherine Brunt giving them a flicker of hope with a six off the final ball of the 19^th.

Lauren Smith was the one charged with bowling out the game and kept the Scorchers to only eight runs.

The victory was extra sweet for the Sixers after last years dramatic final over loss to cross-town rivals Sydney Thunder.

Leys had said leading into Saturday they had drawn on that experience with many of the players not having experienced the extra pressure that a grand final brings.