Alyssa Healy and Ashleigh Gardner led the Sydney Sixers to a 33-run victory against arch rivals Sydney Thunder
Match Recap: Sixers defeat Thunder
Match in a tweet: Sixers prevail in the local derby thanks to blistering half-centuries from Healy and Gardner.
The score: Sydney Sixers 3-164 (Healy 55, Gardner 51) beat Sydney Thunder 7-131 (Osborne 32) by 33 runs
The hero: Alyssa Healy was on fire at the spotless stadium. The Sixers opener was delightful to watch as she hit the ball long, hard and straight. Healy started her brutal assault by hitting two fluent off-drives against Southern Stars opening bowler Rene Farrell. The feature of Healy's innings was her inside out cover drives against the pace bowlers and the spinners. Healy was particularly severe on Maisy Gibson as she took 17 runs from the leg-spinner’s first over, including three fours in a row. Healy blistering knock of 55 from 38 balls featured 10 well-struck boundaries.
The support cast: Ashleigh Gardner has been a revelation for the Sixers this season. Batting at No.3, the talented allrounder capitalised on the solid opening partnership by building her innings nicely before finishing with a flourish to register a half-century from just 31 balls. The right-hander was pivotal in propelling the Sixers to formidable total of 166 by hitting 13 runs in the last over of the innings. Gardner remained unbeaten on 52 from 31 balls with six boundaries.
The partnership: Is there a more lethal opening partnership in WBBL|02 than Healy and Ellyse Perry? Once again the two Sixers dynamos were at the top of their game putting on 88 from 69 balls for the opening stand. The pair's standout feature is that they rarely try to out do each other, preferring to target different bowlers. Today it was Healy who bunted the spinners while Perry decided to target the pace bowlers, with their flying start proving to be the difference.
The hat-trick: Fancy executing three perfect strokes against a leg-spinner by dancing down the pitch. Not only did Healy do it once, but she did it three times – and in three consecutive balls.
Next stop: The Thunder will take on the Heat in Blacktown on January 2, while the Sixers travel across Sydney to take on the Hurricanes at Hurstville Oval tomorrow at 2.30pm local time.