Sydney Thunder 112 for 6 (Wilson 33, Learoyd 31*, Kapp 3-20) won Melbourne Stars 108 for 9 (Darlington 3-26) for four wickets
Sydney Thunder are one win away from their third WBBL grand final, after recording a tense final victory against Melbourne Stars.
The win means that if Thunder beat the second-placed Melbourne Renegades in their final round match on Saturday, they will finish first. That would automatically qualify them for the Dec. 1 final and give them hosting rights as the highest-ranked team.
A loss to Renegades would likely mean they would finish second or third and would have to go through at least one elimination match to reach the finals.
Wednesday’s result continued a horror season for the Stars, who have won just two of eight games and are last in the standings.
Stars then had a chance to get Learoyd out and catch her on the boundary but missed both and eventually eight runs were needed in the last over. Learoyd hit the first ball for two and the next for four, before a single allowed Darlington to finish the job for the hosts.
Darlington had previously claimed figures of 3 for 26 in their four overs, with four of those runs coming from a delivery. She squeezed Meg Lanning and bowled her with a smart off-cut for 12, and also made Kapp bowl a ball to cover for the next over.
Athapaththu was also stingy with her 2 for 12 in four overs and also produced a direct hit in the field to remove Tess Flintoff. That ultimately helped set up the victory as the Thunder approached their first grand final since clinching the 2020 title.
