SYD­NEY – A tidy in­nings from West In­dies Women’s cap­tain Stafanie Tay­lor failed to in­spire her side and fel­low Windies all-rounder Hay­ley Matthews was a non-starter in the lat­est round of match­es in the Women’s Big Bash League on Sat­ur­day.

Tay­lor made 33 from 29 balls, but the Ade­laide Strik­ers’ hopes were all but dashed, when they lost a cru­cial con­test against the Syd­ney Thun­der by five wick­ets in a nail-bit­ing fin­ish, when the fi­nal week­end of the pre­lim­i­nary com­pe­ti­tion got go­ing with teams scram­bling for a place in the se­mi-fi­nals.

Matthews watched from the side­lines, as the bot­tom-placed Ho­bart Hur­ri­canes give an im­proved bat­ting per­for­mance, but it was still not enough, and the Perth Scorchers beat them by 10 wick­ets.

At Drum­moyne Oval, Strik­ers en­tered the match sit­ting in sixth in the stand­ings, but they need­ed a win against the Thun­der to keep their se­mi-fi­nal hopes alive, be­fore fac­ing the Scorchers in their fi­nal match on Sun­day at North Syd­ney Oval.

Out­side of Tay­lor, who strug­gled with a leg in­jury dur­ing her in­nings, and Katie Mack, whose 58 from 52 balls in­clud­ing five fours and one six was the top score, the rest of the Strik­ers bat­ting failed to fire, and they were re­strict­ed to 133 for six from their al­lo­ca­tion of 20 overs, af­ter they were put in­to bat.

Tay­lor did not take the field with the Strik­ers, but her side gave a spir­it­ed per­for­mance be­fore the Thun­der crossed the fin­ish line with two balls re­main­ing in the match.

Tay­lor and Mack formed the strongest part­ner­ship of the in­nings and car­ried the to­tal past 100 slow­ly, af­ter the Strik­ers stum­bled to 38 for two in the eighth over.

Dur­ing her in­nings, Tay­lor strug­gled to com­plete a run and called for med­ical treat­ment. Af­ter be­ing cleared, she and Mack con­tin­ued mer­ri­ly be­fore a mix-up be­tween re­sult­ed in her be­ing run out in the 17th over.

No oth­er Strik­ers bats­man reached 20 and pac­er Sam­my-Jo John­son was the pick of the Scorchers bowlers with three for 25 from her al­lot­ted four overs.

Strik­ers failed to make an ear­ly break­through and the Thud­ner reached 44 with­out loss af­ter the Pow­er Play.

Once Aus­tralia Women’s pac­er Sarah Coyte bowled Eng­land Women’s in­ter­na­tion­al Tam­mi Beau­mont and Dar­cie Brown had John­son su­perbly caught by Made­line Pen­na off the last ball of the 10th over, there was a bit of un­cer­tain­ty in the Thun­der bat­ting.

Aman­da-Jade Welling­ton, the pick of the Strik­ers bowlers with three for 33 from her four overs, had Rachel Tre­na­man caught at mid-on for 38 in the 13th over and Eng­land Women’s in­ter­na­tion­al Heather Knight, the Thun­der lead­ing run scor­er this sea­son, caught in the deep for nine.

Thun­der still need­ed 31 from the fi­nal 30 balls of the match and their cap­tain Rachael Haynes, the Aus­tralia Women’s in­ter­na­tion­al, stepped up with 30 from 23 balls to keep her side ahead of the scor­ing curve.

Haynes was stumped off Welling­ton with eight need­ed from sev­en balls, but Phoebe Litch­field got them over the fin­ish line.

At North Syd­ney Oval, New Zealand bats­man So­phie Devine earned the Play­er-of-the-Match award with eight fours and five six­es in an un­beat­en 87 from 53 balls in her first match back from in­jury.

Aus­tralia Women’s in­ter­na­tion­al Beth Mooney sup­port­ed with 48 from 36 balls that in­clud­ed five fours and the Trans-Tas­man open­ing pair led the Scorchers to a com­mand­ing vic­to­ry over the Hur­ri­canes, eas­i­ly chas­ing down 135 for vic­to­ry.

Matthews was prob­a­bly re­lieved to have been spared the pun­ish­ment with Devine and Mooney shar­ing 140 – un­bro­ken – to car­ry the Scorchers to their sixth win and third in the stand­ings, vir­tu­al­ly as­sur­ing them of a place in the se­mi-fi­nals.

Hur­ri­canes, sent in­to bat, stum­bled to 27 for two in­side the Pow­er Play, but they re­cov­ered to post a re­spectable 134 for six from their al­lo­ca­tion of 20 overs.

Aus­tralia Women’s in­ter­na­tion­al Nico­la Carey led the way with 36 and Em­ma Thomp­son added 33 not out, but no oth­er Hur­ri­canes bats­man reached 20.

The Hur­ri­canes will take on the Thun­der at Drum­moyne Oval on Sun­day in their fi­nal match.

CMC