Teenage sensation Caoimhe Bray snared a hat-trick as the Sixers beat the Thunder by 24 runs in the WBBL Sydney derby at Drummoyne Oval on Saturday night.
Set 143 to win after sending the Sixers in, the Thunder never seriously threatened to chase down the required total, finishing at 8-118 to remain without a win from three matches this season.
Medium-pacer Bray’s hat-trick broke the back of the Thunder’s innings as they slumped from an already dicey 3-33 to 6-42.
Her first wicket came with the final ball of the seventh over of the innings when she dismissed Thunder captain Phoebe Litchfield, who was caught by rival skipper Ashleigh Gardner, for eight.
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She completed her hat-trick with the first two balls of her next over, the Thunder’s ninth, with the dismissals of Anika Learoyd, who was bowled for 11, and golden duck victim Laura Harris, who directed a square drive into the hands of a diving Erin Burns at point.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 15: Caoimhe Bray of the Sixers celebrates a hat trick during the WBBL match between Sydney Thunder and Sydney Sixers at Drummoyne Oval, on November 15, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)Source: Getty ImagesSYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 15: Caoimhe Bray of the Sixers with the ball she took a hat trick with after the WBBL match between Sydney Thunder and Sydney Sixers at Drummoyne Oval, on November 15, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Bray, 16, finished with the superb figures of 4-15 from four overs, also claiming the wicket of Chamari Athapaththu for just three.
Debutant Lucy Finn top-scored for the Thunder with an unbeaten 49 off 34 balls.
Earlier, the Sixers – who were forced into late change when Lauren Kua replaced Amelia Kerr in the 11 after the star New Zealand all-rounder injured her quad in the warm-up – reached 142 for the loss of nine wickets from their 20 overs.
English opener Sophia Dunkley top-scored for the Sixers with 43 off a 35-ball innings that included six boundaries.
Dunkley and Alyssa Healy (26 off 15) shared a second-wicket partnership of 60 runs.
Despite Healy’s dismissal, off the bowling of Ismail in the ninth over, the Sixers seemed to have a good launching pad at 2-76.
However, the Thunder fought back, restricting the Sixers to 66 runs from their remaining 11.1 overs.
Ismail finished with 3-27 from her four overs, while Georgia Voll chipped in with 2-25.
Voll’s scalps included Sixers star Ellyse Perry, who was trapped LBW for just six runs from seven balls.
An unbeaten 24 off 19 balls from Mady Villiers helped the Sixers get to a competitive total.
“We felt we were a bit unders,” Healy told Fox Sports.
“We probably once again set ourselves up pretty nicely with the bat and just lost wickets at regular occasions, which was frustrating … (but) we did the work early with the ball.”
In the first game of the Drummoyne Oval double-header, the Hobart Hurricanes defeated Brisbane Heat by 16 runs via the DLS method in a rain-affected contest.
