Maisy Gibson, Heather Graham help Hobart Hurricanes register third win in WBBL08

Melbourne Renegades and their misery at the bottom of the table continued in the eighth edition of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) as they went down against Hobart Hurricanes by four wickets at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart on Thursday (November 3).



Put into bat first, Renegades were off to good start with Hayley Matthews and Chamari Athapaththu adding 39 runs for the opening wicket. However, once Matthews fell to Maisy Gibson, Renegades lost two more wickets in quick sucession and were reduced to 49 for 3 in the eighth over.



From there, Athapaththu and Courtney Webb added 52 runs for the fourth wicket with the Sri Lankan southpaw scoring her first fifty of the season. Although Gibson came back to remove Webb to end the partnership, Athapaththu batted through the innings to take Renegades to 133 for 5 from the stipulated 20 overs. She remained not out on 75 off 59 balls.



For Hurricanes, Gibson was the best bowler on display with four wickets to her name.



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In the chase, Hurricanes started solidly with Elyse Villani and Lizelle Lee adding 30 runs for the opening wicket. Despite the efforts of Sophie Molineux and Shabnim Ismail to dismiss Villani and Mignon du Preez, Renegades couldn’t keep themselves in the match as Heather Graham counter-attacked with a sedate Rachel Trenaman giving her company.



Once Trenaman and Nicola Carey fell, Ruth Johnston joined Graham to play a few shots including a maximum over extra-cover off Sarah Coyte in the 18^th over. Even though Johnston fell in the next ball, Naomi Stalenberg finished the match with a boundary off the next over. Graham remained unbeaten on 39 off just 26 deliveries.



Maison’s spell of 4 for 24 won her the player of the match as Hurricanes registered their third win of the competition with four wickets to spare.



Brief Scores: Melbourne Renegades 133/5 in 20 overs (Chamari Athapaththu 75*; Maisy Gibson 4/24) lost to Hobart Hurricanes 137/5 in 18.1 overs (Heather Graham 39*; Sophie Molineux 2/31) by four wickets POTM: Maisy Gibson