Sydney Thunder 146 for 5 (Knight 48, Athapaththu 38) win Hobart Hurricanes 113 for 8 (Graham 31, Darlington 3-16)
Three days after the Hurricanes won by 31 runs in Hobart, Thunder scored a 33-run victory in a match reduced to 17 overs per team after rain delayed the start at North Sydney Oval by 30 minutes on Thursday.
Athapaththu (38 off 29) and Knight (48 off 28) helped the Thunder amass 146 for 5. The Hurricanes smashed 18 off their first seven balls but lost 5 off 13 in the final overs.
Darlington claimed the big wickets of Lizelle Lee and Heather Graham and Athapaththu completed a good all-round effort by taking 1 for 11 in three overs of tidy spin, dismissing England star Danni Wyatt-Hodge.
England captain Knight, who missed the first match between the two teams, played some good shots and added momentum in the second half of the innings.
“It was really nice to start a competition and hit the ground running and I thought ‘Atta’ was brilliant too,” Knight said. Seven. “We were able to partner up a little bit there and in the end that set things up.”
Athapaththu, who was out for a duck on the first ball on Sunday, fell to deep midwicket for 5. His innings included a six over deep midwicket and long before he fell to a remarkable low one-handed catch from Strano in a fierce drive.
“I didn’t have much time to think about it, it was a tracer bullet, so I’m really happy that it just stuck,” Strano said.
In reply, Lee hit boundaries off the first two balls of the Hurricanes’ chase and three in the over, then Wyatt-Hodge scored a six off the first ball of the second over.
Thunder counterattacked and Athapaththu caught Wyatt-Hodge at the back spot. Nicola Carey, who scored 50 in last weekend’s match, then clipped a Shabnim Ismail delivery into his stumps, one ball after the quick South African hit her on the helmet.
Lee was unable to maintain her early momentum and was awarded the first ball after the mid-innings break, although had she used DRS, she would have been reprieved.
A spirited fourth-wicket stand of 43 between Graham and Elyse Villani gave hope to the Hurricanes before they were dismissed in successive overs to trigger a decisive collapse.
