Allrounder Sophie Devine has continued her stellar WBBL campaign, scoring her ninth half-century of the tournament to guide Adelaide into Sunday’s final.
The New Zealand international, crowned player of the tournament earlier in the week, scored an unbeaten 65 at Allan Border Field on Saturday as the Strikers chased down a target of 127 with 11 balls to spare against Perth.
It means the White Fern has scored 764 runs in the tournament and is within touching distance of Ellyse Perry’s record of 777 runs from last year’s tournament.
It’s the first time the Strikers have made the WBBL final, where they’ll face the winner of Saturday’s other semi-final between Brisbane and Melbourne Renegades.
Sent in by the Strikers in hot and hazy conditions, the Scorchers made a disastrous start with Devine (2-23) snaring the prize wicket of Australian captain Meg Lanning (1) in the second over of the day.
Megan Schutt (2-14) then took two wickets in as many balls as the Scorchers slumped to 3-23.
An 88-run stand between Georgia Redmayne (51) and Jemma Barsby (31) lifted Perth to a defendable 7-126 off their 20 overs.
Needing early wickets to put pressure on Adelaide, the Scorchers made a perfect start when Strikers captain Suzie Bates was run out for one in the second over.
Devine and Tahlia McGrath (36) then combined in a solid 79-run partnership which took the game away from Perth.
McGrath was dropped twice in her knock, once by wicketkeeper Redmayne early in her innings and again on 19 when Nicole Bolton spilt a simple catch on the long-on boundary.
Devine also had her share of luck, surviving a caught-behind appeal in the opening over of the innings and being dropped by Bolton at a point when she was on 47.
Defeat for the Scorchers means despite making the finals four times in five years in the WBBL, they are yet to claim a title.
-AAP
The post Cricket: Devine batting as Adelaide Strikers win way into WBBL final appeared first on The New Daily.
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