With plenty of tweaks and a little bit of shortening here and there, all the major competitions were played
Andrew McGlashan18-Apr-2021WBBL: Sydney ThunderThe first title of the season was decided in late November when Sydney Thunder won the WBBL for the second time by comprehensively beating Melbourne Stars in the final at North Sydney Oval after the competition had been staged entirely in a Sydney-based hub. Shabnim Ismail and Sammy-Jo Johnson were almost unplayable with the new ball and the Stars, who had led the way in the regular season, could only limp to 86 for 9. It was a target comfortably overhauled as Heather Knight and Rachael Haynes cantered home.Leading run-scorer: Beth Mooney (551, Perth Scorchers)
Leading wicket-taker: Sammy-Jo Johnson (22, Sydney Thunder)BBL: Sydney SixersA tournament that began in multiple mini-hubs then managed to traverse Covid-19 outbreaks and the related border closures to come to a conclusion at the SCG – the final being the only game of the season played in New South Wales – with the Sydney Sixers securing back-to-back titles having spent their entire campaign on the road. James Vince’s 95 off 60 balls was the standout as the Sixers gave Perth Scorchers too much to chase despite their powerful batting order. Dan Christian was able to add another trophy to his cabinet.Leading run-scorer: Alex Hales (543, Sydney Thunder)
Leading wicket-taker: Jhye Richardson (29, Perth Scorchers)Related
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WNCL: QueenslandAfter multiple delays and schedule changes, the domestic 50-over competition was played from late January to late March with each team having eight matches. The standout feature was the volume of centuries churned out, and often by those not in the Australia set-up. The backend of the tournament was played without the international names who were in New Zealand and Victoria, who qualified with ease, suffered especially hard. In the final, they were overpowered by Queensland, led by Georgia Redmayne’s hundred, as they won the title for the first time.Leading run-scorer: Elyse Villani (611, Victoria)
Leading wicket-taker: Molly Strano (14, Victoria)Marsh Cup: New South WalesFor a while, it appeared this competition could fall by the wayside but a reduced version was completed as the domestic season stretched well into April. A number of teams used it as a chance to blood younger players amid heavy workloads but the final at Bankstown was full of international stars (even with some absent at the IPL). However, the decisive innings came from Jack Edwards, one of New South Wales’ up-and-coming names, as they overpowered a hefty Western Australia batting line-up.Leading run-scorer: Peter Handscomb (299, Victoria)
Leading wicket-taker: Joel Paris (Western Australia), Sean Abbott (New South Wales), Matt Kuhnemann (Queensland), Jackson Bird (Tasmania) – all with 10 wicketsSheffield Shield: QueenslandIt started in an Adelaide-based hub in October when border closures were still a major factor in Australia and concluded in front of 10,000 fans across four days at Allan Border Field in mid-April as Queensland secured the Shield for the ninth time. The postponement of the South Africa Test series meant the international players appeared much more than might have been the case which produced some high-quality cricket even if the pitches tended to be on the docile side. There was a lot of toil for the quicks but spinners had their chance to shine – with three in the top five wicket-takers – while batters often enjoyed themselves, with feats such as Will Pucovski’s back-to-back double hundreds and Cameron Green’s career-best 251.Leading run-scorer: Cameron Green (922, Western Australia)
Leading wicket-taker: Nathan Lyon (42, New South Wales)
