Mooney hits straps as Perth face must-win games

After an uncharacteristically quiet start to Weber WBBL|08, Beth Mooney has resumed run-machine status at the perfect time, with reigning champions Perth Scorchers facing a must-win weekend of matches in country Victoria.

Mooney holds a special place in the WBBL record books as the only player to have scored more than 400 runs every season.

That record appeared under threat when the left-hander had scored 159 runs at a strike rate of 92 from her first six innings, but recent innings of 99no, 90 and 75no have launched her to the top of the league runs tally.

She now has 431 runs at an average of 54 and a strike rate of 122, with two games left to play in the regular season.

"You want to contribute in these tournaments especially towards the back end because they’re the games that matter," Mooney said in Moe on Friday.

"No one remembers how you start – and hopefully they won’t for me because I didn’t start too well – but it’s more important how you’re playing at back end and trying to gather some momentum there heading into finals.

"It’s just staying patient with your game and knowing the process and your skills haven’t gone missing overnight, perhaps just a bit of luck has to go your way … being in those couple of big partnerships with Kappie (Marizanne Kapp) really helped."

Speaking after hitting 90 against the Renegades last weekend, Mooney said she had stuck to the style of cricket she wanted to play, backing it to come off eventually.

"(My form) has been a bit patchy but at the same time, form is a little bit of an odd word used in T20 cricket because it comes and goes and you know you're only one innings away from hitting your straps," she said.

"For me if I'm going out and playing the style of cricket I want to and getting out that way, then I can live with that.

"But perhaps early on I was probably scratching my way around trying to find ways to play on difficult wickets, instead of sticking to what I know. So perhaps I'm doing something right now."

Things have yet to click for Mooney’s opening partner and skipper Sophie Devine, who has hit 131 runs from 11 innings and shuffled herself down the order in recent games.

Speaking after last Sunday’s final-ball loss to the Sixers, Devine offered a typically blunt assessment of her own form.

"To be brutally honest, I suck at the moment," Devine said.

"(Moving down the order) gives other players an opportunity to get going and hopefully I can bat a bit deeper in the end.

"But I just haven't been able to find the gears to be there further into the innings.

"That's cricket sometimes, I feel like I'm training really hard and doing all of the things right ... and hopefully the cricket Gods shine down on me soon, because it's pretty tough, to be fair.

"But when you've got players like Moons and Kappie doing what she's been doing the last two games, it certainly makes it a bit easier."

The Scorchers are currently fifth on the table, two points behind the Hurricanes and Strikers in third and fourth, but have a game in hand over their rivals with matches against both the Stars and the Renegades at Moe’s Ted Summerton Reserve this weekend.

Even two wins could still leave them relying on other results and net run rate; while forecast wet weather for Victoria’s east will also cause some nerves.

"We’re heading towards a brand of cricket we’re a little happier about playing," Mooney said.

"Everyone wants to be playing finals, it’s what you get out of bed in the morning for.

"For us there’s no hiding from the fact we’ve got to win two games.

"A lot can happen around us with games falling a particular way but if we just concentrate on ourselves and try and get two wins on the board, hopefully the rest takes care of itself."

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