FOR a moment on Saturday afternoon as Lisa Griffith watched the ball sail off the bat of her Sydney Thunder team-mate Nicola Carey, she thought she was headed to the Women’s Big Bash League grand final.
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Seconds later the potential joy turned into bitter disappointment.
Carey’s effort off the last ball of the semi-final at Drummoyne Oval had looked headed over the rope on the full – a six which would have handed Thunder victory over Brisbane Heat.
But Haidee Birkett snared a brilliant catch on the boundary to hand Heat a four-run win in a thrilling conclusion to the semi-final.
Thunder finished at 7-136 in reply to Heat’s 7-140, seeing Bathurst talent Griffith and her team-mates fall one agonising win short of the grand final for the second consecutive season. Last year they went down to Perth in the qualifier.
Though Griffith, who had figures of 0-9 off her sole over, had enjoyed a much improved season with the ball, it was still a disappointing end to the campaign.
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Thunder had won 10 of its 14 regular season matches – a record only the Sydney Sixers had bettered – while Griffith not only ranked as one of the most economical bowlers in the competition, but claimed some big scalps along the way.
Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy were amongst Griffith’s victims in her second season in the Twenty20 competition.
“I’m obviously really disappointed we haven’t progressed, but we played have some fantastic cricket this season and we played a good game today,” Thunder skipper Alex Blackwell said.
“I’m really proud of our girls, we’ve had a fantastic season, we’ve had lot of fun and we’ve seen great development especially in our bowling group, so on to bigger and better things next season.”
While Griffith will now turn her focus to her NSW Breakers duties in the Women’s National, Heat will face Sixes in the decider thanks to Birkett’s brilliance.
“She got every piece and it was six runs so I thought, I actually thought it was going for six,” Birkett said.
“But then I realised I was actually there and stuck my hands up and it stuck.”