Gardner's 25-ball 64 sets up the Sixers' nine-run DLS win over the Thunder

Ashleigh Gardner's unbeaten 64 from 25 balls and Caoimhe Bray's four wickets carried the Sydney Sixers to a nine-run win over the Sydney Thunder in a rain-shortened derby at North Sydney Oval

Rain cut the WBBL fixture to 16 overs a side, and the Sixers used them to post 162 for 2, built on an unbroken stand of 97 between Gardner and Ellyse Perry.

The Thunder were set a revised target of 168 and were bowled out for 158 with three balls of their allocation unused, Bray finishing with 4-28.

It was a fourth win in four matches for the Sixers, who sit top of the table on eight points. The Thunder are level at two wins and two defeats.

Rain reduces the derby to 16 overs

Sydney Thunder won the toss and chose to bowl, and the weather then dictated the shape of the afternoon, trimming the contest to 16 overs each.

The Sixers lost a wicket early and rebuilt through Perry and Amelia Kerr, who was retired out for 14 with the score on 65 for 2 so that Gardner could come in with the overs running down.

Gardner reaches fifty in 18 balls

Gardner was dropped before she had scored. She then hit five fours and five sixes, reaching her fifty from 18 balls and finishing on 64 not out from 25.

Perry held the other end with 59 not out from 41 balls, an innings of 11 fours, and reached her own fifty from 38 deliveries. The pair were unseparated when the innings closed.

The 18-ball fifty equalled the mark Laura Harris set in 2018 and left Gardner two balls outside Tess Flintoff's league record of 16.

From 65 for 2, the Sixers added 97 without further loss in the overs that remained.

Bray takes four and a catch on the rope

Bray removed Phoebe Litchfield and Georgia Voll, both for 8, and later accounted for Nadine de Klerk and Laura Harris to finish with four wickets for 28 runs.

Her most striking contribution was a piece of fielding. Jemma Barsby swung at an off-break from Gardner towards deep midwicket, and Bray caught the ball at the rope, carried her momentum over it and threw back to Lauren Cheatle, who completed the dismissal. Barsby went for a golden duck.

Bray told Fox Sports that the relay owed everything to her team-mate. "If Cheats wasn't there, I probably could have made it look less mayo-ny."

Thunder fall nine short

The chase was going to plan at 55 for 1 after nine overs when rain returned. The revised target of 168 from 16 overs left them needing better than ten an over.

Harris gave them a chance with a rapid 35, putting on 52 with de Klerk, but Bray dismissed her in the 11th over and the lower order could not stay with the rate.

The Thunder were all out for 158 in 15.3 overs, nine short on Duckworth-Lewis-Stern. Sarah Coyte took two wickets alongside Bray's four.

Sixers stay perfect

Four matches, four wins, and the Sixers have now beaten the Melbourne Stars and their city rivals in the space of three days.

Gardner finished with two wickets to go with her 64, and the Sixers lead the table on eight points to the Thunder's four.

The second match of the North Sydney Oval double-header went to the Perth Scorchers, who held the Melbourne Stars to 136 for 6 and chased the target down in 15 overs to win by six wickets.

Scorecard: Sydney Sixers Women 162 for 2 in 16 overs (Gardner 64*, Perry 59*) beat Sydney Thunder Women 158 in 15.3 overs (Harris 35; Bray 4-28) by nine runs on DLS.