Fairytale finish: Villani lifts trophy, calls time on her Big Bash career

Fairytale finishes in elite sport are rare.

When Elyse Villani led her Hobart Hurricanes team out onto Ninja Stadium on Saturday night, she was 80 per cent certain it would be for the final time.

By the time Nicola Carey hit the winning runs two-and-a-half hours later to seal the club's maiden WBBL title, she was certain.

The 36-year-old may have jumped the gun slightly announcing her Big Bash retirement post-game on Channel Seven before telling her teammates, but when Villani called her troops together shortly after to share her news, there was nary a dry eye in the house.

"It's a fairytale ending, to be honest," Villani told reporters as the Hurricanes celebrated their eight-wicket win over the Scorchers.

"It's been playing on the back of my mind this season, and I was hoping that this could be the way that it finished.

"I was 80 per cent sure that this was the way it was going to go.

"But as soon as we won, I just knew that was the moment."

After playing in three losing Big Bash finals during her time with the Scorchers and Stars, Villani's first WBBL title was the missing piece in a career that's included three T20 World Cup triumphs with Australia and three 50-over domestic titles with Tasmania.

The magnitude of Hobart's win on Saturday meant Villani's services with the bat weren't required.

But when called upon in WBBL|11, she delivered in the middle-order, scoring 146 runs in her eight innings – finishing unbeaten on five occasions – and striking at 150.51.

Villani explained it had been important to her to walk away while she was still performing well.

She also had one eye on the Hurricanes' future; with the oldest average age of any list in WBBL|11, she is conscious of making sure they continue to evolve to stay at the top.

"I want to help set Hobart Hurricanes up for sustainable success, and we've got a really great list of experience and youth, and it's important to make sure that we keep giving those opportunities (to younger players) as well so that we can set up for that sustainable success," she said.

"I will still be around, just not in the playing capacity for Hobart Hurricanes.

"I've been having really honest conversations with our coach Jude (Coleman), and our High Performance Manager Sal (Beams) and I've been really open and honest with them, and obviously my partner Nic (Carey) as well.

"They said you don't need to make any decisions right away, but I just knew that if we won that that was going to be it.

"To be able to go out on my own terms, and to be able to go out as a as a winner, and to feel as though I still played pretty good cricket this during this Big Bash was really important to me, and something that I really wanted to hold on to.

"It's always difficult, it's been a huge part of my life, and something that I'll miss a lot, but at the same time, you can't live this dream forever, and this is the great way to go out."

For now, Villani plans to continue playing state cricket for Tasmania, saying "I'll take a bit longer to work out what's next ... I think it's still possible for me to play in the 50-over format, but it just felt like in the T20 format the timing was right."

While Villani wasn't required with the bat on Saturday night, her leadership was crucial.

The Hurricanes had an eight-day wait for the final following their final regular-season game – plenty of time to dwell on what was to come.

With a touch of nerves in front of a bumper home crowd, they were wobbly in the field early, missing early chances alongside several misfields, but ultimately came together to restrict the Scorchers to a total well below par.

"Before we went out to field I said to the group, we don't need to play a perfect game today to win," Villani said.

"(I told them), 'We haven't played a perfect game all season, we're certainly not going to play one tonight … but what we can do really well is we can stay present and we can compete in every given moment, because when we do make an error, it's really important that we bounce back, because we know that it never just comes down to one opportunity'.

"I think it's pretty normal to be nervous and a little bit tense at the start, but I felt like we grooved into it pretty well."

WBBL|11 finals schedule

The Knockout: Perth Scorchers beat Melbourne Stars by 28 runs

The Challenger: Perth Scorchers beat Sydney Sixers by 11 runs

The Final: Hobart Hurricanes beat Perth Scorchers by 8 wickets