Sydney Thunder 112 for 6 (Wilson 33, Learoyd 31*, Kapp 3-20) beat Melbourne Stars 108 for 9 (Darlington 3-26) by four wickets
Sydney Thunder are one win away from their third WBBL grand final, after scratching home to a tense final-over victory against Melbourne Stars.
The win means 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 final on December 1, and giving them hosting rights as the top-ranked team.
A loss to Renegades would likely mean they finish second or third, and have to go through at least one knockout match in order to reach the final.
Wednesday’s result continued a horror season for Stars, who have won only two of eight matches and sit last on the ladder.
Stars then had chances to run Learoyd out and have her caught on the boundary, but missed both and eight runs were eventually required off 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 earlier claimed figures of 3 for 26 from her four overs, with four of those runs coming from an overthrow. She cramped a cutting Meg Lanning and bowled her with a smart off-cutter for 12, and also had Kapp sky a ball to cover next over.
Athapaththu was also miserly with her 2 for 12 from four overs and also produced a direct-hit run out in the field to remove Tess Flintoff. Ultimately that helped set up the win as Thunder close in on their first grand final since their 2020 title success.
