Adelaide Strikers roll Melbourne Stars for 29 in record WBBL rout
Adelaide Strikes made a sensational record-breaking start to their WBBL title defence, dismissing the Melbourne Stars for just 29 on their way to a crushing 148-run win at Karen Rolton Oval.
Put in to bat, Strikers smashed their way to 177 for, with openers Katie Mack and Laura Woolvardt blasting 135 off 14.1 overs.
Stars, who won their opening game on Thursday, were dismissed in just 9.3 overs to comfortable set a new record for the lowest total in the competition.
No Stars batter made double figures with Sophia Dunkley top-scoring with 9.
Megan Schutt, Amanda-Jade Wellington and Zimbabwe legspinner Anesu Mushangwe ripped through the batting line-up to leave the visitors reeling at 18 for 8 in the seventh over.
Captain Tahlia McGrath picked up the last two wickets to complete the embarrassingly one-sided game.
The previous biggest winning margin was Sydney Sixers’ 103-run victory over the Hobart Hurricanes.
“We started unreal with the bat with Katie and Laura and then with the ball as well with Mushy [Mushangwe] and Shooter [Schutt], so very happy,” McGrath told Fox Sports.
“A perfect start but it’s a long tournament it’s a really tough tournament, so we’re going to have to be at our best for the next six weeks.”
Strikers’ openers feasted on some poor bowling, notching at least one boundary in each of the first nine overs.
Mack took 11 off the first Kim Garth over, slashing a couple of boundaries backward of point and scored 49 of her team’s first 55 runs. She struck 10 fours in her first 50, consistently smashing back of a length deliveries to the legside boundary.
Left-arm finger spinner Sophie Day temporarily dragged her team back into the match. She had Woolvardt caught at long on and three balls later Mack was stumped by Nicole Faltum.
Day also had Bridget Patterson caught, but McGrath produced some powerful hitting in the closing overs.
Stars’ reply was catastrophic with the visitors playing a series of loose shots and providing Strikers with catching practice.
Captain Meg Lanning fell to Schutt in the second over for 1, and Mushangwe removed England stars Dunkley and Alice Capsey in the third and the innings never recovered.
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The Adelaide Strikers bowled the Melbourne Stars out for the lowest score in WBBL history in a record-breaking night at Karen Rolton Oval on Saturday.
In what was the most perfect start to the WBBL|09 season, the reigning Champions bowled the Stars out for only 29 runs inside 10 overs.
It smashed the previous low WBBL total of 66.
The Strikers bowlers all finished with remarkable figures – Megan Schutt took 3-3 off three overs, while Amanda-Jade Wellington took 3-4 off two.
Anesu Mushangwe and Tahlia McGrath each took two wickets.
The Strikers were on from the very start, with Schutt taking the crucial wicket of Stars captain Meg Lanning for only one run in the second over and Mushangwe followed up the very next over with two wickets from her six balls.
Over four was a Schutt wicket-maiden and then Wellington struck twice in the fifth over to have the Stars 6-16.
Wickets kept falling every over from there, with McGrath taking the final wicket in the 10th over to secure the 148-run victory.
Earlier in the night, English stars Dani Gibson and Georgia Adams received their Strikers caps ahead of their debut WBBL matches and the Stars sent in the Strikers in to bat.
Katie Mack and Laura Wolvaardt had a brilliant start to the match, racing to 0-27 off the first three overs.
It didn’t take long for Mack to bring up her half-century and at drinks, the duo was 0-99.
They ended up reaching 1-135, the highest opening partnership for the Strikers in WBBL, surpassing the previous best of 0-131.
Mack (86) and Wolvaardt (47) were eventually dismissed, but McGrath picked up where they left off.
She made a quick-fire 34* off 19 and the Strikers finished 3-177 off their 20 overs.
Mack was named Player of the Match for her match-defining knock.
The Adelaide Strikers travel to Melbourne tomorrow ahead of a match against the Melbourne Renegades on Monday and a re-match against the Stars on Tuesday.
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