Taylor powerless to prevent Thunder defeat
– West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor had little impact as her Sydney Thunder lost their second match of the Women’s Big Bash League, with a sixwicket defeat to Perth Scorchers here yesterday.
Sent in at Lilac Hill Park, the visitors rallied to 179 for five off their 20 overs, with opener Rachael Haynes top-scoring with 50 off 40 balls and Indian star Harmanpreet Kaur getting 45 from 29 balls, with a four and four sixes.
Haynes helped give the innings a rousing start, putting on 77 off 42 deliveries for the first wicket with Rachel Priest whose 43 came from 23 deliveries and included eight fours and a six.
When four wickets tumbled for 40 runs to leave Sydney on 117 for four in the 14th over, Kaur combined with Taylor, who cracked an unbeaten 24 off 17 balls, to add 49 for the fifth wicket and give the innings a late push.
In reply, however, Scorchers raced to their target with a ball to spare, courtesy of halfcenturies from captain Meg Lanning (76) and Elyse Villani (66 not out).
PERTH, Australia, CMC
Sydney Thunder’s Stafanie Taylor.
The pair 93 off 56 balls with Lanning the more audacious of the two with 12 fours and a six in a 40-ball knock.
It was Villani who saw her side home, however, adding a further 46 for the second wicket with Amy Jones (13), before helping garner the six runs required off the final over, bowled by off-spinner Taylor.
Thunder lies second in the eight-team standings on 12 points, two points behind cross-town rivals, Sydney Sixers. MELBOURNE, (Reuters) - Former Australia opening batsman Cameron Bancroft has been rushed back into the Perth Scorchers’ squad in the domestic ‘Big Bash’ Twenty20 competition following the expiry of his ban for balltampering yesterday.
Bancroft was banned from international, state and Big Bash cricket for nine months for his part in the Cape Town scandal, which also led to 12month bans for former Australia captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner.
Bancroft, who was permitted to play for his Perth club Willetton during his ban, could make his Big Bash return against Hobart Hurricanes today.
“Thank you to every person, group, team and community I have come across over the last 9 months. You know who you are,” the 26-year-old Western Australian wrote in a post on his Instagram account.
Bancroft broke his silence on the ball-tampering affair on Wednesday, casting Warner as the instigator of the plot to manipulate the ball’s condition with a piece of sandpaper during the test match against South Africa.
Smith and Warner remain suspended until the end of March.