Lauren Winfield-Hill has been called into Brisbane Heat's squad as they look to turn around a winless start to WBBL|11
Heat blow with Harris, Rodrigues to miss crucial Thunder clash
Brisbane Heat's hopes of registering their first win of the Weber WBBL season have been dealt a major blow, with Grace Harris and Jemimah Rodrigues to miss Friday's showdown with Sydney Thunder.
Harris will miss the chance to go toe-to-toe with her sister Laura after being sidelined due to calf soreness, with the Australia star to be assessed ahead of Sunday's game against the Melbourne Stars.
Rodrigues meanwhile will miss both Friday and Sunday's games at Allan Border Field, having flown home with pre-arranged commitments in India, and will return to Australia early next week.
Experienced English batter Lauren Winfield-Hill, who plays state cricket with Queensland and who was part of the Heat squad that made the final last season, has replaced Rodrigues for the weekend's matches.
The absence of the experienced pair is a further setback for the Heat, who have lost their opening three matches of the season to the Renegades, Hurricanes and Scorchers fielding a somewhat new-look line-up.
Brisbane Heat squad v Thunder: Jess Jonassen (c), Bonnie Berry, Lucy Bourke, Sianna Ginger, Lucy Hamilton, Nicola Hancock, Chinelle Henry, Nadine de Klerk, Charli Knott, Annie O’Neil, Georgia Redmayne, Lauren Winfield-Hill, Mikayla Wrigley
"It's been a pretty disappointing start for us," Heat captain Jess Jonassen said on Thursday.
"We don't hide behind the fact that we haven't played our best cricket ... shortened season as well, we know you can't afford to be behind the mark and we haven't played to our full potential so far in these first three games."
A loss on Friday would further cruel the Heat's hopes of making an eighth-straight WBBL finals series. The last time they failed to make the top four was WBBL|03 in 2017-18, and they have finished runners-up in the past two seasons.
Brisbane defied the sceptics in WBBL|10, overcoming the loss of a host of key players, including Georgia Voll, Amelia Kerr, Mikayla Hinkley and Courtney Sippel, to make the decider against eventual champions Melbourne Renegades.
But they have yet to adapt to further changes so far in WBBL|11. This time, the key personnel change was the departure of Laura Harris to Sydney Thunder, while the club elected to draft Chinelle Henry – who offers pace bowling and powerful lower-order hitting in the mold of Harris – rather than former India quick Shikha Pandey, who played a core role with the new ball last season.
Without Pandey, they have looked to young quicks Lucy Hamilton and Sianna Ginger, aged 19 and 20 respectively, in the Powerplay.
"A bit of a focus for us is on trying to get some Powerplay wickets," Jonassen said.
"We've got the quality of people to do it ... I feel like we've created chances, but we haven't really backed it up in the field all the time.
"Our last home game out here, we dropped four catches, and you just can't do that at this level."
The Heat have also switched up their batting order, demoting long-time opener Georgia Redmayne in favour of rising star Charli Knott. The club has also tested Nadine de Klerk at the top of the order, hoping to draw on the South African's recent explosive form at the ODI World Cup despite her lack of experience as an opener.
The move to send out more aggressive strikers alongside long-term opener Harris – who also missed their opening game due to a calf injury – to capitalise on the Powerplay has yet to come off for the Heat, with opening stands of 15, 15 and six.
Harris's injury and Rodrigues' absence will mean the Heat will again need a reshuffle of the top order.
No Brisbane batter has passed fifty so far this season, with Harris' 46 against the Scorchers their largest contribution.
Sydney Thunder squad v Heat: Phoebe Litchfield (c), Em Arlott, Sam Bates, Ella Briscoe, Lucy Finn, Hasrat Gill, Laura Harris, Shabnim Ismail, Heather Knight, Anika Learoyd, Taneale Peschel, Georgia Voll, Tahlia Wilson
"I think when you look at it, those milestones and batters reaching scores … you want somebody in your top order to do the bulk of the heavy lifting," Jonassen said.
"But in saying that, we've always been a team that hasn't relied solely on one or two people to do the job.
"We look at match-winning contributions throughout our entire line-up, and we line up that way.
"We have someone like Lucy Hamilton, who is an incredible up-and-coming allrounder, who bats 11 for us.
"Ideally, we'd love someone within our top quarter to make a big score, and at a really decent clip as well, because that's the trend of the game, you have to score those runs, but do it in a really quick manner as well."
Weber WBBL|11 Standings
| Team | M | W | L | T | N/R | NRR | Ded. | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1
HUR
|
10 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0.662 | 0 | 15 |
|
2
SIX
|
10 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | -0.313 | 0 | 13 |
|
3
SCO
|
10 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | -0.132 | 0 | 12 |
|
4
STA
|
10 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0.629 | 0 | 11 |
|
5
REN
|
10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.121 | 0 | 10 |
|
6
STR
|
10 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0.077 | 0 | 9 |
|
7
THU
|
10 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 1 | -0.124 | 0 | 9 |
|
8
HEA
|
10 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 1 | -0.869 | 0 | 1 |
M: Matches played
W: Wins
L: Losses
T: Ties
N/R: No results
NRR: Net Run Rate
Ded.: Deductions
PTS: Total points