LAUNCESTON, Tasmania, CMC – Hayley Matthews emerged with bragging rights over her West Indies captain, Stafanie Taylor, when her Hobart Hurricanes pulled off a convincing 44-run win over reigning Women’s Big Bash champions Sydney Thunder here Thursday.
Playing at the Aurora Stadium, neither West Indies player had much of an impact, as Hurricanes used a powerful batting performance to climb to fourth in the standings on nine points, alongside Thunder also on nine points but ahead in third spot on net run rate.
Choosing to bat first, Hurricanes piled up an impressive 171 for three off their 20 overs, with captain Heather Knight top-scoring 47 from 29 balls and opener Erin Burns getting 46 from 47 deliveries.
Burns put on 44 off 36 balls for the first wicket with Georgia Redmayne (8) and a further 64 for the second wicket with Knight.
Matthews, batting at an unfamiliar number five, finished on 16 not out from 11 deliveries with two fours. It was her unbroken, fourth wicket stand of 46 off 28 balls with Amy Satterthwaite (32 not out), which propelled the innings late on.
In reply, Thunder could only muster 127 for nine off their 20 overs with Indian star Harmanpreet Kaur hitting a run-a-ball 32 not out and opener Rachael Haynes chipping in with 28 from 22 deliveries.
Taylor’s struggles continued as she fell for just 10, run out in the fourth over with Thunder on 25 for one.
Matthews claimed the key wicket off captain Alex Blackwell for 20 in the 11th over at 73 for four, as she finished with one for 27 from her three overs of off-spin.
