Mooney's cheeky dig at in-form Perry

Heat opener Beth Mooney has issued a cheeky dig at Sydney Sixers captain Ellyse Perry, suggesting Brisbane may be satisfied with containing the competition’s most in-form batter in Saturday’s Rebel WBBL final.

Perry has scored an incredible 744 runs at 93 in 15 innings at WBBL|04, easily breaking the runs record for a single season.

She has also scored those runs at a faster pace this season than in the past – her season strike rate is 123.17, up from 98 last summer – and has two centuries to sit alongside her six fifties. She has faced criticism in the past for her strike rate, a factor that’s seen her bat at No.7 in Australia’s T20 order in recent times.

“We’ve played so much cricket with her and against her, you don’t need to plan for her,” Mooney said of her national teammate on Thursday when asked how the Heat would tackle the in-form batter.

“She has quite a structured game and really nicely plays in the ‘V’ and it’s easy to get a lot of dots against her. 

“So hopefully that will be the plan on Saturday, to get a few dots up her end and get wickets up the other end and just let her do her thing, because she’s the best batter in the world at the moment and she’s going to be really hard to get out.

“But we’ll back our skills and bowl to our plans we’ll get one up on her hopefully.”

When at her best this season Perry has been unstoppable, including in her remarkable 102no from 59 deliveries against Perth Scorchers at North Sydney Oval, but she has been forced to play a more sedate anchor role in two of the Sixers’ past three matches as wickets tumbled at the other end, posting 67 from 62, then 54 from 59 in two games against the Renegades.

Perry scored a century at the SCG when the Sixers and Heat met for the first time earlier this season, an incredible 103no from 64 deliveries in a game the Sixers won by 11 runs.

It goes without saying Brisbane’s first preference would be to dismiss the in-form allrounder cheaply, a feat they managed at Hurstville Oval in December when they removed Perry for two, dismantling the Sixers for 88 in their second meeting of the home-and-away season.

And as her Australian coach Matthew Mott noted earlier this week Perry has put a power of work across the last 12 months into finding ways to score in different parts of the ground.

“She’s practiced really hard across the last 12 months just to get access to more parts of the ground and you can see that, she’s just become a lot better at manipulating the fields,” he said.

“She’s been a great player but quite a traditional player but her ability to (now) access different parts of the ground has put opposition captains under a lot more pressure. 

“Just by accessing a few different areas she pulls players away from her strength areas and she’s been ruthless when she’s gotten the gaps she likes and taken full toll.” 

The Heat and Sixers will meet in the first standalone WBBL final on Saturday at Drummoyne Oval, with the action kick off at 10.10am AEDT.

Tickets are now on sale, with adults $10, concession $5 and children free.

All proceeds from the ticket sales will go towards Dolly’s Dream, a charity supporting the fight against bullying.