Sammy-Jo Johnson show carries the Brisbane Heat in the semi-final

Playing on their home ground The Gabba, Brisbane Heat defeated Melbourne Stars by 7 wickets to secure the semi-final birth of WBBL04.

Brisbane Heat won the toss and invited Melbourne Stars to bat as the Gabba wicket appeared to assist the seamers. Heat’s call proved correct as the Stars were rocked by devastating opening spell by Brisbane Heat’s Sammy-Jo Johnson from which they never recovered.

On the very first ball of the inning Johnson bowled a perfect fast delivery leaving Stars’ opener Lee no time to leave resulting in a simple catch to the keeper Mooney. Johnson then removed the fellow opener Reakes in the next over leaving Stars 2/8. In her third over Martin top edged a fast in swinging ball and Mooney behind the wicket took a simple catch.

du Preez and Osborne stitched a 38 run partnership and as Stars seemed to have recovered from the early blows. Jess Jonassen added to the misery by dispatching the pair on the consecutive deliveries off the 11^thover as Stars slipped to 5/52.

King and Sutherland held the fort for 20 more runs as Delissa Kimmens ran through the rest of the inning claiming 4-18 as Stars lost last 4 wickets in the span of 6 balls and added only 2 to the tally. In the 20^thover of the inning Stars were bundled out for 88.

Chasing 89 to win, Brisbane Heat got off to flyer as Mooney scored 3 boundaries in 2^ndover. In an attempt to clear the mid-on Mooney was caught by Osborne off Sutherland. Pumped by her heroics with the ball, Johnson joined the crease wasted no time in taking Stars’ bowlers to task. In her quickfire 30 (14) Johnson cleared the rope 3 times and added 2 more boundaries before she and Harris were dismissed within 3 balls.

At 56/3 in the 6^thover, Jonassen joined Short and took off from to where Johnson left the thrashing. Immediately she dispatched King beyond the boundary and made her intentions clear and in the next over by Beams she scored 2 boundaries. It was King’s next over in which she scored 4 consecutive boundaries to finish the match in style. Jonassen remained unbeaten on 34 (14) with 6 boundaries and a six as Heat chased the target in just 8.4 overs.

An emphatic 7 wicket victory means the Brisbane Heat have secured their semi-final berth in the WBBL04.