CRICKET –
Fortunes have turned for Sydney Thunder and North Gosford’s Lauren Smith in the WBBL with their first two wins of the season one after the other, October 30 and 31.
The double weekend fixtures saw the squad face Melbourne Stars on Saturday afternoon then Hobart Hurricanes the following morning, and Smith excelled with challenging bowling and a firm catch in game two.
First batting against the Stars, the early strength of Tahlia Wilson granted Thunder 53 runs from as many balls, with Phoebe Litchfield following this up with 49 runs from 42.
An overall innings of 133/5 kept Smith warm on the benches without a bat and her main contribution became her fielding efforts.
For her single over as bowler, Smith frustrated Erin Osborne and Kim Garth who scored only two and one runs each.
Needing 25 runs from the final over, the Stars had too much ground to cover and reached an end score of 114/8.
This opening victory of the season was well timed for Thunder ahead of their second weekend fixture against the Hurricanes, only a little more than 12 hours later.
Again batting first, Smriti Mandhana gave the team the early leg up with a half-century from 50 balls and not one run more.
An overall 146/6 meant Smith missed out on batting once more, but on the field she was responsible for putting away an in-form Mignon du Preez, who had reached 41 runs from 39 balls.
Deepti Sharma brought the fire with her spin bowl, tempting du Preez into a downfield drive that fell into the soft hands of a well-positioned Smith.
The Gosford representative also stepped up to bowl for Overs 8 and 14 and kept her opposition’s scoring low at 15 runs from 12 balls.
In the end it was a confident win for Thunder with the Hurricanes losing before the final over, reaching a top score of 109/8.
The solid performance by Smith, especially her clinical catch against du Preez, is particularly impressive considering her recent hand injury sustained a week earlier against the Perth Scorchers.
In this match, a cut to her hand’s webbing required stitches but it did not keep her from coming back to finish off the game.
“I think I was just in the game – in the zone – a little bit, you know,” reported Smith in defence of her stoic return to the contest.
“All the lights, camera, action and adrenaline kind of took over so I didn’t really feel it – it was numb as well at the time.
“So I had just a little bit of fun out there and I know the game wasn’t going our way but I thought that I would just give it a crack.”
Although two wins have now been tallied, Thunder still remain in eighth at the bottom of the table after seven matches, although hold two games in hand on the seventh place Hurricanes and one game on first place, Melbourne Renegades.
Their next challenge will be against second place, Brisbane Heat, to be played at Adelaide Oval on Sunday, November 7 at 9:45am.
Haakon Barry