Molly Strano took two wickets, but the Hobart Hurricanes's batting failed beaten by 48 runs against the Adelaide Strikers in Mackay. Image: Hobart Hurricanes - Twitter
The Hobart Hurricanes’ batting issues continued in Mackay, the efforts of the bowling contingent to restrict the Adelaide Strikers were not enough in a 48 run loss.
Hobart was up and about early thanks to the bowling of Tayla Vlaeminck, who found plenty of swing in the warm and slightly humid conditions in Mackay.
Vlaeminck’s pace was able to get some shape off the deck and she took the early wicket of Katie Mack with a fuller delivery that took leg stump and sent Mack packing.
Her first two overs went for three runs total, her hot start impressing everyone, including her teammate Molly Strano who spoke to The Inner Sanctum post-match.
“Tay was able to get some really nice swing early on, which was nice to see her steaming in and bowling some beautiful outswingers…” Strano said.
“She’s such a weapon for us up front so when she gets conditions which suit her like they did today, she’d an absolute handful to deal with.
“She bowled beautifully today and was probably the pick of our bowlers, so yeah it was nice to see Tay steam in and bowl some nice little outswingers.”
Strano broke through with her first wicket, tossing it up to Dané van Nierkerk and encouraging her to swing. It went straight to Amy Smith who took a comfortable catch.
It was the best she’d felt bowling this season for the Hurricanes’, finishing with 2/23 off her 4 overs.
“Overall, I haven’t really been happy with my campaign thus far, but probably today, I probably felt the most comfortable I have, probably all season.
“I’ve done a fair bit of work over the last couple of days, trying to fix a few things and working with Marshy, and try to just, yeah work a few things out, and tinker with a few little things, so it was nice to see them pay off.
“Still disappointing though, we were pretty happy to keep them to 140 at the halfway mark, but not being able to chase that down was pretty disappointing in the end.”
Some runs late in the 20th over, saw the Strikers get up to 4/142, but it was still an achievable total for the Hurricanes.
As has been a theme throughout their tournament, the Hurricanes lost another early wicket, Naomi Stalenberg caught by Bridget Patterson in Darcie Brown’s first over.
Rachel Priest was sent back to the dugout in Brown’s second over, a low full toss caught the captain by surprise and instead of putting it away, she hit it straight to Amanda-Jade Wellington at mid-wicket.
The Hurricanes’ batting would have benefited from the added firepower of Ruth Johnston, who was not selected in today’s line-up, as the ‘Canes chose to debut Angelina Genford.
After the openers went early once again, the wickets continued to fall under the pressure of the Adelaide Strikers’ attack.
Mignon du Preez settled quickly at the crease and was given an extra life when Strikers’ skipper Tahlia McGrath dropped a sitter. However, the following over McGrath got the wicket of du Preez off her own bowling, caught at midwicket by Madeline Penna for 21 runs.
At the fall of Richa Ghosh, bowled by Brown, it was Strano and Sasha Moloney at the crease with 10 overs remaining and 99 runs required.
“When I went out there, we still had 10 overs left and we needed about 10 an over so Sash (Moloney) and I sort of joined forces and we sort of knew what we had to do, we had to score a boundary off every over and try to get a run a ball off every other ball, in the remaining of the over as well.
“So, we had to somewhat take some risks in a way to be able to keep with that run rate, which didn’t pay dividends today, but yeah it was pretty disappointing.
“It was going to be a tough chase to sustain 10 run per over required run rate for 10 overs, that was going to be pretty tough going, but we backed ourselves in to do it, and we had some pretty clear plans.
“But as I said, it didn’t come to fruition today.
“So, yeah we’ve got a week off this week, so hopefully we can regroup and finish the season strongly next weekend with two wins.”
Vlaeminck had a crack with the bat after her efforts with the ball, but even sixes from the fast bowler were not able to help the Hurricanes get close to the target set by the Strikers.
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The Hobart Hurricanes have just two matches remaining for the season, with finals out of question, they’ll still be aiming to finish on a winning note, says Strano.
“It would just be really nice for us to finish on a winning note; we’ve got a really strong squad and it just hasn’t quite clicked for us this year.
“So, if we can leave this season with a sort of nice sweet taste in our mouth and put some good performances on the park, it almost helps us rolling into next season, knowing that we’ve got the armoury to compete at this level and compete well.
“But, yeah we’ll have a good week this week, we’ll train hard and as I said, just probably tinker with a few little bits and pieces and hopefully next weekend against the ‘Gades and Thunder we can finish on a strong note and get two wins to finish the campaign.”
The Hobart Hurricanes will be aiming to make the most of their penultimate opportunity in WBBL|07 when they take on the Melbourne Renegades on Friday in Mackay from 3:40 pm AEDT.
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