Thunder bounce back to winning ways through Voll's 97*

Perth Scorchers vs Sydney Thunder

Sydney Thunder kept their top spot in the points table with a convincing win in a high-scoring encounter against Perth Scorchers. Chasing 170, they rode on opener Georgia Voll's unbeaten 97 to secure their victory with an over to spare.

Voll was the dominant partner in a 46-run opening stand with Chamari Athapaththu (9) and the trend continued right through the innings. With Heather Knight she added 63 runs off 41 balls to provide some impetus in the chase and finished it off in a flurry, hitting three boundaries in the last three overs of the innings.

Earlier in the day, Perth Scorchers were able to put up a stiff total thanks to significant contributions from their senior pair of Beth Mooney (97) and Sophie Devine (44). The duo shared a 112-run stand that proved to be the bedrock of the innings which otherwise suffered without other contributions. Mooney missed out on a ton when she was given LBW for 97 against Shabnim Ismail in the final over of the innings. Devine too missed out on a half-century becoming one of the two victims of Taneale Peschel in the penultimate over. Peschel's strikes and the departure of Mooney robbed the innings off some momentum in the latter stages of the innings.

It left Perth Scorchers with eight points, the same as four other teams, and in the fourth spot on NRR.

Brief Scores: Perth Scorchers W 170/5 (Beth Mooney 97, Sophie Devine 44; Taneale Peschel 3-28) lost to Sydney Thunder W 173/3 (Georgia Voll 97*) by 7 wickets

Melbourne Renegades vs Melbourne Stars

Melbourne Renegades clinched a thrilling derby by a margin of just 9 runs to be placed second in the points table. They overcame stiff competition from Melbourne Stars with both bat and ball to eventually prevail. In the chase, Sarah Coyte struck twice in the penultimate over getting rid of the threatening Rhys Mckenna as well as Tess Flintoff after the duo had resurrected the chase with a 44-run stand for the seventh wicket. But those blows meant that the Renegades were not left with enough firepower down the order to get past the finish line.

Before McKenna and Flintoff had their stand, the Renegades had lost their way in the chase, slipping to 108/6 when they lost Marizanne Kapp in the 15th over. The Caribbean duo of Hayley Matthews and Deandra Dottin struck twice each to rip through the middle order and leave the innings wide open. The innings had still fared better until that stage when compared to the Renegades who had lost half their side for just 48. Both Dottin and Matthews were part of that top-order collapse, effected by a collective bowling effort, before a lower-order rescue act.

Nicole Faltum, with an unbeaten 66, had Georgia Wareham and Georgia Prestidge giving her support in useful stands lower down. With Wareham she added 67 and soon after 55 more with Prestidge that gave the innings a final fillip which proved to be decisive eventually.

Brief Scores: Melbourne Renegades 170/6 (Nicole Faltum 66*) beat Melbourne Stars 161/8 (Rhys McKenna 34; Sarah Coyte 2-13) by 9 runs