Perry and teenage star Bray blow Hurricanes away
Ellyse Perry has continued her magnificent early season WBBL form to help the Sydney Sixers maintain their stranglehold over the Hobart Hurricanes.
Sixers captain Perry cracked 86 off 62 deliveries, in an innings that included 11 fours and two sixes, to ensure the visitors posted a competitive 7-155 at Hobart’s Ninja Stadium on Wednesday.
Cameos from Danni Wyatt-Hodge (30 off 26), Elyse Villani (26 off 17), Chloe Tryon (20 off 15) and Lauren Smith (21 not out off 13) got the Hurricanes close, but they finished on 9-149 – six runs short.
The Sixers improved to 2-2 and the Hurricanes dropped to 2-3.
It was the Sixers’ 19th win in 21 encounters against the Hurricanes, who have lost seven straight to the Sydney team and are 0-7 against them at Ninja Stadium.
Talented 15-year-old schoolgirl Caoimhe Bray (2-13 off three) again impressed, capturing the key wickets of Nicola Carey (17 off 15) and Tryon.
English spinner Sophie Ecclestone (2-22 off four) was another key performer for the Sixers.
“A really important win for us, I thought the way we just held with the ball at different points was brilliant,” Perry told Fox Cricket and Kayo.
“And Caoimhe especially played a really important role for us, but then I thought Sophie Ecclestone was on fire tonight, the way we defended that total was awesome.”
Perry had some luck on four when she was dropped at square leg off the third ball of the innings. She made the Hurricanes pay.
She went on to add 37 with Ashleigh Gardner (21 off 16) and 61 with English import Hollie Armitage (30 off 25).
The Australia superstar then clobbered 14 off the last three balls of the penultimate over, lofting the second last ball over deep extra cover for six before being caught off the final ball of the innings.
It took Perry’s aggregate for the season to 252 from four innings – three half centuries and the other an undefeated 31.
The Hurricanes’ chase started in eventful fashion with Lizelle Lee smacking a boundary off the first ball before falling lbw to Lauren Cheatle the next delivery.
The ‘Canes’ were well placed at 1-46 after six overs, but Wyatt-Hodge’s dismissal was followed by those of Australian representatives Carey and Heather Graham.
Villani struck four boundaries in the two Power Surge overs, but holed out to long on off the final ball of that phase.
Bray removed Carey thanks to a fine diving legside catch by wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy.
The teenager bowled an impactful 16th over in which two wickets fell for just four runs.
She had the dangerous Tryon caught at mid off, while Molly Strano fell victim to a direct throw from Ecclestone at mid off and was run out.
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