Perth openers Amy Jones and Meg Lanning have fired the Scorchers into the WBBL top four with a clinical nine-wicket triumph over the Melbourne Stars in St Kilda.
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Englishwoman Jones (70) and Australian captain Lanning (68 not out) made light work of what had appeared a competitive Stars total of 6-149, achieving victory with five balls to spare on Wednesday at a warm CitiPower Centre.
Player-of-the-match Jones was the early aggressor but, for most of the Scorchers' chase, the gun duo kept pace with each other in their 147-run stand.
A flawless 10-wicket win looked on the cards with three runs required in the 19th over but Jones, trying to finish it off, charged at Nicola Hancock only to sky a catch to Stars skipper Elyse Villani.
Fellow England import Nat Sciver thumped Annabel Sutherland for four off her first ball to raise victory moments later.
Earlier, Sam Betts (3-21) and Heather Graham (2-23) were standouts with the ball, preventing the Stars seizing the advantage.
Villani (59) was back to her best with her third half-century of the summer and paced the Stars' innings in partnerships of 50 with fellow opener Lizelle Lee (24) and 53 with the aggressive Mignon du Preez (38 off 22 balls).
But Villani's efforts were not enough to prevent her bottom-placed Stars falling to their ninth defeat from 10 games.
Australian Associated Press
