Stars blow as Sutherland sidelined for remainder of WBBL|12

The Melbourne Stars' rotten Weber WBBL season has taken another hit after Annabel Sutherland was ruled out for the rest of the tournament, with the allrounder under a cloud for Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka.

Sutherland was revealed to have suffered an injury to her right hamstring tendon which "will not recover while playing tournament cricket" and now requires a "period of offload", according to Australia’s physiotherapist Kate Moore. 

"Her availability for Australia’s tour to Sri Lanka in December is to be confirmed," added Moore. Sophie Molineux’s side will visit the island nation next month on a rare tour to play three ODIs.

It leaves the Stars, whose finals hopes are teetering having gone winless from their last five games, without their best player for their run home. Meg Lanning’s side is bidding to make the finals for only a second time in six seasons.

Sutherland, who handed over the Stars captaincy to Lanning at the start of the season, has been the Stars’ leading wicket taker (seven scalps at 26) while her tournament strike-rate (146) is second only to Georgia Prestwidge's (171).

The reigning Belinda Clark Medallist has been relatively resilient to injury over her five-year international career, though she was managed for a tour of the Caribbean earlier this year.

Selectors will be eager to have her fit for Australia’s tilt at the Champions Trophy in February and then the Ashes later in the year. There are also home ODIs against New Zealand in March before a multi-format tour of South Africa ending in mid-Apri, as well as India’s Women’s Premier League in January.

Zoe Samuel, a 19-year-old allrounder who is yet to make her WBBL debut, has replaced Sutherland in the Stars’ squad to face the Sydney Thunder at Drummoyne Oval on Monday

"It’s always disappointing to lose a high-quality player and we’ll miss Annabel’s contributions," Melbourne Stars general manager James Rosengarten said. "But as always, change presents opportunities for other members of the team and we have a lot of confidence in our full playing squad."

Translating her world-class Test and ODI batting into the shortest format has been something of the final frontier for Sutherland.

After debuting in the WBBL as a 15-year-old and primarily playing as a pace bowler before working her way up the batting order, Sutherland has a Big Bash average of 24.18 and strike rate of 116.03 from 50 innings in her current role at No.4.

Last August, she was crowned player of the tournament at the UK's Hundred after scoring 315 runs at an average of 63 and strike rate of 153 for Leeds, backed up by her 11 wickets. Across her past three seasons in the English franchise competition batting at No.4, she's averaged 48.86 and struck at 141.

She carried that form into Australia's ODIs against Bangladesh, posting unbeaten knocks of 74 and 25, but had limited opportunities batting at No.7 in the T20I side, scoring 10 and 9 across her two innings against the White Ferns.

Weber WBBL|12 Standings

Round 1

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	Drawn D	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Bowling Bonus Bowl	Total points PTS
1 Sydney Sixers Women SIX	6	5	1	0	0	0	0.922	0	0	0	10
2 Perth Scorchers Women SCO	6	5	1	0	0	0	0.779	0	0	0	10
3 Brisbane Heat Women HEA	6	4	2	0	0	0	1.154	0	0	0	8
4 Adelaide Strikers Women STR	5	3	2	0	0	0	0.23	0	0	0	6
5 Melbourne Renegades Women REN	6	3	3	0	0	0	-0.4	0	0	0	6
6 Sydney Thunder Women THU	5	2	3	0	0	0	0.215	0	0	0	4
7 Melbourne Stars Women STA	6	1	5	0	0	0	-0.602	0	0	0	2
8 Hobart Hurricanes Women HUR	6	0	6	0	0	0	-2.087	0	0	0	0

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

D: Drawn

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

Bowl: Bowling Bonus

PTS: Total points