Mooney looks to Mackay for revival

Brisbane Heat star Beth Mooney says she's experienced a few sleepless nights of late after a streak of low scores in the Rebel WBBL, but the opener hopes a bumper crowd in Mackay will help spark a revival in form this weekend.

The Australia opener started WBBL|04 with an unbeaten 63 in Melbourne, but hasn't passed fifty in her nine innings since, with 241 runs at 34.42 to her name for the season.

The Queenslander also failed to notch a half-century during Australia's successful T20 World Cup campaign in the West Indies in November, with a top score of 48 and an average of 21.16 across six innings.

The Heat will play the Adelaide Strikers and Melbourne Renegades in two matches at Mackay's Harrup Park this weekend, the second season the competition has headed to the regional ground.

After top-scoring with a 38-ball 57 for the Heat at the venue in WBBL|03, Mooney hopes a return to Mackay will help replicate that form as her team seeks to sew up a semi-final berth.

"I can't quite hit it off the square still, so I'm not too happy with how I'm going," Mooney said in Brisbane on Thursday.

"There's been a lot of sleepless nights about that, but hopefully in Mackay the crowd gets behind us and I score a few runs for a change.

"They rolled out a decent wicket for us (last year)."

Almost 8000 fans turned out to watch the two WBBL games played in Mackay last summer and Mooney hopes to see more of the same this year.

"It was awesome (last year), it's always amazing to get out to the country and play in regional areas," she said.

"Everyone in the street knew there was a game on and knew who we were, so the girls are really keen to get back there."

While Mooney has yet to hit the heights of previous WBBL seasons, consistent performances across the board have put the Brisbane team in a solid position to make the finals.

The Heat currently sit third on the WBBL ladder with four games remaining, behind the two Sydney teams.

"The dream is to lock in a spot for the semis before that last game and not have to rely on net run rate or anything like that," Mooney said.

"So all things going to plan, we'll get a couple of big wins in Mackay and a crowd getting behind us will go a long way to helping that.

"In T20 cricket it's really hard to be consistent but in the 14-game competition the team who can find consistency the most often will go a long way to winning and playing finals.

"The thing about our team this year is everyone is contributing sometimes and it's made a big difference in winning games."

Following their Mackay matches against the Strikers and Renegades, the Heat will finish their home-and-away season with clashes against the Melbourne Stars at the Gabba, and the Sydney Thunder in Cairns.

The competition is set for a close finish with seven teams still in finals contention, but Mooney said her team won't be distracted by the play-off equations.

"It's funny, I was thinking driving in here that we haven't spoken about the semi-finals yet and that's probably been a bit of a difference this season," she said.

"It's get in and get it done on the day and worry about the next game.

"I think that's made a difference, you can get to the back end (of the season) and all you're focusing on is the semi-finals and where you might play and who you might play.

"But there's four crucial games for us coming up and we have to focus on them one game at a time."