Phoebe Litchfield and her Sydney Thunder's Rebel Women's Big Bash League came campaign to an end with Sunday's defeat to the Melbourne Renegades, a loss that also marked the end of Alex Blackwell's glittering career.
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The Thunder's slim hopes of a finals berth actually came to an end the day before when the Renegades knocked off the Melbourne Stars, before the former sneaked into the top four with Sunday's 29-run win over the electric greens.
The Thunder were sunk by Renegades skipper Jess Duffin and star Molly Strano, who combined with bat and ball respectively to inspire the victory and help their side force their way into third, finishing above Perth on net run rate.
I've just been so proud to play for the Sydney Thunder, it's great club.
- Retiring Thunder legend Alex Blackwell
Duffin banged out 53 from 44 balls and combined with English star Danni Wyatt (44 from 31) in an innings-saving, 72-run, third-wicket stand, the Renegades eventually posted a more-than-competitive 6-151.
With little more than sending Blackwell out a winner as motivation the Thunder fell short in the chase, Strano taking 3-26 from three as the electric greens were restricted to 7-122 in reply.
Litchfield accounted for just nine of those, finishing a promising debut campaign with 187 runs from 11 innings at an average of 20.78 and an impressive strike rate of 96.89.
She, of course, claimed one player-of-the-match in her history-making effort against the Brisbane Heat in round two, in which she became the youngest player in BBL history to score a half-ton, guiding her side home with an unbeaten 52.
While Blackwell's time at the top has been long and successful - she's made more than 200 international appearances for Australia - it was arguably in the WBBL where she made her biggest mark, she sits among the tournament's leading run-scorers of all-time.
She led the Thunder to the inaugural title and across her 71 innings she smashed 1752 runs at 34.35 with a strike rate of 106.12, notching six half centuries and also picking up six player-of-the-game awards along the way.
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"I've just been so proud to play for the Sydney Thunder, it's great club and connects with the community which is really important," Blackwell said.
"We've got a great bunch of young kids to come through and keep it strong for years to come too."
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Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
