It was a changed line-up for the Hurricanes from their loss to the Strikers yesterday, with Erica Kershaw, Chloe Rafferty and Hayley Jensen all coming into the side. For the latter two, it was their Hurricanes debut.
Again, the Hurricanes won the toss and sent their opposition into bat. After a big first over from Stars’ openers, Elyse Villani and Meg Lanning – with 14 runs off it – the ‘Canes composed themselves, to peg the Stars back to 0-36 after five overs.
Enter; the debutant in Rafferty. With her first ball she dismissed the Stars’ Captain in Lanning – and arguably the best batter in the world at that – and the Hurricanes had they breakthrough they needed.
Promoted up the order, Annabel Sutherland came in at three to join Villani at the crease, and together the two built a 120-run partnership. Both were eventually dismissed – first Villani for 56 and then Sutherland for 72, two balls apart – but with both wickets coming in the final over of the innings, the Stars had posted a handy total of 3-159.
With Hayley Matthews sitting out the match after injuring her knee in the field the previous day, the Hurricanes debuted another new opening partnership in Rachel Priest and Nicola Carey. Priest got off to a flyer and threatened to go on to make a dangerous score when she smashed two sixes off Natalie Sciver in the third over – one that went right out of the ground. However, an lbw decision that didn’t go her way in fifth over, saw her leave the crease on 24 off 18 balls.
Kershaw joined Carey in the middle, and together the two built up a nice little partnership. However, with boundaries hard to come by and dot balls all too common in the middle overs of the innings, the required run rate kept climbing to the point where the 160 required to win was unachievable. The Hurricanes actually out-scored the Stars in their final five overs of their innings, but their final score of 8-120 simply wasn’t enough to win.
Post-match, Priest reflected on her side’s performance.
“For Chloe Rafferty to come in for her first game and get the best batter in the world out gave us a really big boost because we had a couple of key wickets that we needed to get. But there was a massive partnership in the middle there for the Stars and they’re a quality side, so I think we held them back pretty well, but they probably just got a few away towards the end there.”
When asked about the decision on her own dismissal, Priest replied; “that’s cricket.”
“Unfortunately, our batting probably hasn’t been our strong suit this tournament, so we’ll probably be looking to remedy that for our last couple of games.”
The Hurricanes will now enjoy a rest day tomorrow, before gearing up to face the Perth Scorchers and Sydney Thunder on the weekend.