The 2017âÂÂ18 Women's Big Bash League season or WBBL|03 was the third season of the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), the semi-professional women's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia. The tournament was scheduled from 9 December 2017 to 4 February 2018.
The final, held at Adelaide Oval, pitted the Sydney Sixers against the Perth Scorchers for the second season running. Sydney comfortably won the match by nine wickets to claim back-to-back championships. Punctuating an emphatic comeback from retirement, Sixers medium-pace bowler Sarah Coyte managed figures of 4/17 in the decider and was named Player of the Final.
Melbourne Renegades captain Amy Satterthwaite was named Player of the Tournament, although her team failed to qualify for the finals. Sixers captain Ellyse Perry was the leading run-scorer of the season, while the leading wicket-taker title was shared between the Sixers' Sarah Aley and the Scorchers' Katherine Brunt.
Each squad featured 15 active players, with an allowance of up to five marquee signings including a maximum of three from overseas. Australian marquees were defined as players who made at least ten limited-overs appearances for the national team in the three years prior to the cut-off date (24 April 2017).
The table below lists each team's marquee players and other key details for the season.
The table below lists local player movements made ahead of the season.
Changes made during the season included:
The table below lists changes to overseas marquee allocations made ahead of the season.
Changes made during the season included:
Coaching changes made ahead of the season included:
Captaincy changes made ahead of the season included:
Captaincy changes made during the season included:
Below is a summary of results for each team's fourteen regular season matches, plus finals where applicable, in chronological order. A team's opponent for any given match is listed above the margin of victory/defeat.
The Adelaide Strikers recorded the first-ever one-wicket victory in WBBL history, defeating the Melbourne Stars on the last ball of the match. Requiring three runs with one delivery remaining, Tabatha Saville scored a boundary off leg-spinning Stars captain Kristen Beams to clinch a narrow win for the Strikers.
All knockout phase matches were played as double headers with the men's tournament, hence the venues for both semi-finals and the final were determined using the standings of the BBL07 points table.
Player of the Tournament votes are awarded on a 3-2-1 basis by the two standing umpires at the conclusion of every match, meaning a player can receive a maximum of six votes per game.
<small>Source: WBBL|03 Player of the tournament</small>
An honorary XI recognising the standout performers of WBBL|03 was named by bigbash.com.au:
Players under 21 years of age at the start of the season are eligible for the Young Gun Award. Weekly winners are selected over the course of the season by a panel of Cricket Australia officials based on match performance, on-field and off-field attitude, and their demonstration of skill, tenacity and good sportsmanship. Each weekly winner receives a $500 Rebel gift card and the overall winner receives a $5000 cash prize, as well as access to a learning and mentor program.
Melbourne Renegades all-rounder Sophie Molineux was named the Young Gun of WBBL|03 after scoring 318 runs and taking 6 wickets. The other nominees for the award were Sydney Sixers' Ashleigh Gardner (who took out the accolade in WBBL02), Renegades teammates Georgia Wareham and Maitlan Brown, Adelaide Strikers batter Tabatha Saville, as well as bowlers Annabel Sutherland from the Melbourne Stars and Belinda Vakarewa from the Sydney Thunder.
A total of twelve matches were televised on free-to-air in the third season of Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) on Network Ten, including four on the opening weekend. The remaining 47 matches were live streamed on the Cricket Australia or MamaMia website as well as the Cricket Australia Live App for mobile.
Below are the television ratings for every game that was broadcast by Network Ten during the season.
The Super Over of match 42 drew ratings of 296,000 nationally, and 185,000 in the 5 metro cities.