Queensland have been confirmed as the second finalists for the WNCL season after WA fell short in chase of ACT Meteors’ target
The ACT Meteors have grabbed a thrilling season-ending 14-run victory over Western Australia, who have gone down fighting for a WNCL final spot, which has been locked by the Queensland Fire as a result.
The Meteors bowled out a desperate WA on 192 in defence of their 205 as the much-improved side record their best performance in four years, finishing fifth on the ladder.
Sitting third on the point table ahead of Sunday’s contest – the last of the home-and-away season – WA were on a hunt for a win by a substantial margin to dethrone Queensland from the second spot and set up a date with NSW for next Saturday’s final.
After they bowled out the Meteors for 205, the Net Run Rate calculations threw up the 18.5 over mark for the home side to get to the target to go past Queensland, who had given their NRR a big boost with a bonus point win over Victoria on Saturday.
They would have been encouraged by their own eight-wicket win over the same opponent two days ago, where they chased down 175 in 34 overs to jump past Queensland and South Australia from fourth to second on the ladder for a few hours.
Needing just over 11 runs an over, WA got down to business straight away with Maddy Darke hitting two boundaries in the first over.
But the haste turned into disaster as captain Chloe Piparo was run out on the non-striker’s end as she had wandered too far down the pitch to sneak in a quick single when Darke’s straight shot brushed bowler Amy Hunter’s hand on its way to taking down the stumps.
However, the loss of the side’s leading run scorer for the season did not deter Darke and no.3 Heather Graham, who managed to keep WA not too far behind the asking rate by finding the boundary regularly.
Graham particularly took a liking to spin when Anesu Mushangwe was introduced in the sixth over, hitting three boundaries off the leggie, with Darke adding another to make it a 17-run over.
But Zoe Cooke (3-29) and Georgia Elwiss (2-26) judged the situation with their experience to entice the WA batters into false shots and leave the side 5-89 in the 12th over.
Cameos from Bhavi Devchand (26 off 31), Chloe Ainsworth (33 off 32) and Lilly Mills (33no off 52) pushed the side close to the target but were not enough to get them over the line as Mushangwe (3-45) struck at key junctures for WA.
After opting to field earlier, WA kept the Meteors batters under check, not allowing the visitors to build any major partnerships.
Opening quick Ebony Hoskin (2-27) was clinical and delivered two wickets within the powerplay before ACT captain Carly Leeson (41 off 52) and English international Georgia Elwiss (25 off 25) stitched together a 39-run stand, which would prove to be the most productive of the Meteors innings.
Leg-spinner Shay Manolini – the pick of WA bowlers with her figures of 3-51 – removed Elwiss in the 16th over.
Zoe Cooke (29 off 67) and Shivani Mehta (30 off 48) put up a resistance for the Meteors in the lower middle order, but WA’s accurate bowling made scoring freely difficult. Mehta notably accumulated her score entirely by running between the wickets.
The visitors were eventually bowled out on the penultimate ball of their 50 overs. But what would have been a sub-par total on most days would prove enough against a WA side fighting a battle within a battle.
Despite the result on Sunday, it was a remarkable turnaround for WA from their bottom-of-the-table finish last year and losses in first four matches of the season to winning seven in a row and keeping their final hopes alive until the last game.
It all now comes down to the title clash on March 21 at Sydney’s Cricket Central, where NSW will host Queensland in a re-match of last year’s final.
WNCL 2025-26 standings
Team
Matches played
M
Wins
W
Losses
L
Ties
T
No results
N/R
Net Run Rate
NRR
Deductions
Ded.
Batting Bonus
Bat
Total points
PTS
1
NSW
12
11
1
0
0
1.034
0
5
49
2
QLD
12
8
4
0
0
0.459
0
4
36
3
WA
12
7
5
0
0
0.137
0
3
31
4
SA
12
7
4
0
1
-0.22
0
1
31
5
ACT
12
5
6
0
1
-0.217
0
1
23
6
TAS
12
3
9
0
0
0.002
0
3
15
7
VIC
12
0
12
0
0
-1.267
1
0
-1
Legend
M: Matches played
W: Wins
L: Losses
T: Ties
N/R: No results
NRR: Net Run Rate
Ded.: Deductions
Bat: Batting Bonus
PTS: Total points
