Adelaide strikes back with an epic upset
MEGAN Schutt has finally added WBBL champion to her list of achievements after the veteran seamer and her Strikers teammates stunned the Sixers on Saturday night.
Having lost their two previous finals – including last year’s decider in Perth – the Strikers got the redemption they’ve been building towards with a 10-run win at North Sydney Oval against a Sixers side filled with international stars.
“That one had been brewing for a while, and I just felt like the stars were aligning and everything was falling
into place,” said Schutt, who finished the season with a tournament-high 27 wickets.
“To come up with a win third time lucky, it’s something I’ve been dying to do for such a long time.
“It’s more important than you can imagine. We’re such a tight-knit group in South Australia and we really pride ourselves on the way that we play cricket. We really love each other.
“We have scrapped all season. When you put the two line-ups next to each other, the Sixers are basically an international line-up.
“We’ve won games that we shouldn’t have and we’ve also
lost games that we should have won, but we scrapped when it counts because we’ve got a fighting spirit.”
At a ground where the runs traditionally flow, the Strikers opted to bat first and only reached 147 thanks to some late hitting by player of the match Deandra Dottin.
The decision to bat first looked to have backfired, but their perfectly balanced attack went to work quickly and had four of Sydney’s best back in the dugout inside six overs.
“I was nervous, but that was always the plan – not the 140 part – but to put them under pressure,” Schutt said.
“They hadn’t really chased
against a good quality bowling side like ours for a long time, and we wanted to put them under pressure. For once I was in favour of batting first, which doesn’t happen very often.
“I truly believe that batting first was going to put them under the pump more than anything, and I back us to defend any total.”
Adelaide’s bowling has been their biggest strength this season, and it was fitting that all six of their bowlers – each with their own unique set of skills – picked up a wicket on Saturday.
But it was Dottin who backed up her unbeaten 52
with a double-wicket maiden to remove Suzie Bates and then Ash Gardner for a duck, just days after the Sixers star had been named player of the tournament.
“She was nervous as hell,” Schutt said of her West Indian teammate.
“It took a little while to crack her open because she’s a bit shy, which is so funny for someone who’s called ‘World Boss’. But she’s great.
“She’s a game changer and we got her to be the x-factor in our side. At the start of the season she probably didn’t live up to that and was a bit nervous, but she came to play when it really mattered.”
For a team that has scrapped all season and had to deal with a 6am flight into Sydney the day before, it was fitting that they had to contend with something truly bizarre on grand final night.
The Sixers’ run chase was delayed by 15 minutes because the openers couldn’t see due to the setting sun, although Alyssa Healy joked that play could resume if Schutt bowled instead of the speedy Darcie Brown.
“I was a bit blown away by the fact that it happened, but I don’t really care,” Schutt said.
“Our whole team rolls with the punches … you can’t take that stuff too seriously.”