Perth vindicated as Devine, Mooney rewrite record books

Sophie Devine describes her and Beth Mooney's record-breaking partnership as a combination of "brawn" and "brains".

Others will simply say they are the most successful pairing in Weber WBBL history – and as of Saturday, the Perth Scorchers stars hold that title outright.

Devine and Mooney have shared nine 100-plus run partnerships at the Scorchers, eclipsing the previous best of eight between Sixers duo Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy.

Most impressive is the fact they have produced those stands across fewer than four full seasons, compared to Healy and Perry's nine together in magenta.

"We've had a couple of discussions about this in the last couple of days after we saw that we were equal first on that record and I think we just complement each other really well," Mooney told cricket.com.au on Saturday.

"We love batting together, she (Devine) obviously hits a long ball and can take the game away from opposition (and) I'm a bit of a slow burn at times when it comes to doing that.

"Having a left- and right-hand (combination helps), I'm more of a manipulator and she's more of bomb down the ground type, so we just complement each other's game, we run well between the wickets and we just thoroughly enjoy being out there together."

Some fans and pundits questioned the Scorchers' decision to retain Devine at the inaugural overseas player draft ahead of South Africa allrounder Marizanne Kapp.

Kapp was the Scorchers' best player in WBBL|08 while Devine had a season she would rather forget, scoring 182 runs striking at 97 with a top score of 44no, and taking eight wickets at 32.

However the Scorchers backed in Devine's leadership and her outstanding record both in the Big Bash and in T20 cricket in general – and their faith is being paid back in spades.

Devine is the current 'BKT Golden Cap' holder as the WBBL|09 leading run-scorer having hit 419 runs at a strike rate of 152.36, including a century and three fifties.

She has hit 18 sixes this season – level with the Heat's Grace Harris – and across nine seasons of the WBBL she has cleared the boundary 141 times, streets ahead of second-placed Ashleigh Gardner with 88.

"She's going really well," Mooney said of Devine.  

"I think she's just enjoying her cricket and joining the group – I'm probably speaking out of turn a bit, speaking on behalf of her, but she just looks like she's a happy human and enjoying being around the Scorchers so long may it continue.

"It was a tough call, we would have loved to have kept both Marizanne Kapp and Sophie but her leadership is second to none.

"I'm sure she probably felt a little bit like she had to prove something when we retained her, but she never had to in our eyes."

Mooney meanwhile quietly marked of a neat slice of history of her own during her century against Sydney Thunder on Sunday.

During her unbeaten 101 she passed 400 runs for the tournament, maintaining a perfect record of scoring at least that many runs in each of the competition's nine seasons to date.

The next best on that list are Devine and Perry, who have both crossed 400 runs in a season on five occasions.

The left-hander has hit 418 runs this season, one fewer than Devine.

"She's a special player in terms of how she can read the game and how she can drag people along with her, and I'm one of those people," a typically humble Devine said of Mooney.  

"She's the brains and I'm probably the brawn, I don't know if I'm much else to be fair … I don't know what it is, we just seem to click."

Weber WBBL|09 Standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Total points PTS
1 Adelaide Strikers Women STR	14	11	3	0	0	1.154	0	22
2 Perth Scorchers Women SCO	14	8	6	0	0	0.784	0	16
3 Brisbane Heat Women HEA	14	8	6	0	0	0.203	0	16
4 Sydney Thunder Women THU	14	7	6	0	1	0.298	0	15
5 Sydney Sixers Women SIX	14	7	7	0	0	-0.253	0	14
6 Hobart Hurricanes Women HUR	14	6	7	0	1	-0.597	0	13
7 Melbourne Stars Women STA	14	6	8	0	0	-0.779	0	12
8 Melbourne Renegades Women REN	14	2	12	0	0	-0.978	0	4

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

PTS: Total points