Georgia Voll takes 4-26 as Sydney Thunder beat the Renegades in the WBBL 12 opener

Georgia Voll took four wickets and made 25 as Sydney Thunder opened WBBL 12 with a six-wicket win over Melbourne Renegades at Junction Oval

Sydney Thunder began the new Women's Big Bash League season by chasing down a modest target with 18 balls to spare, reaching 140 for 4 in 17 overs after Melbourne Renegades had been held to 138 for 9.

The match turned on a single passage of the first innings. Georgia Voll, bowling off-spin, finished with 4-26 and added a run-out as the Renegades lost five wickets for two runs in the space of seven balls.

Voll then made 25 from 18 balls in the chase, and Anika Learoyd followed with a career-best 48 to settle the result.

Matthews gives the Renegades a platform

Sydney Thunder won the toss and bowled, and for 16 overs the decision looked an ordinary one.

Hayley Matthews and Courtney Webb put on 56 for the first wicket, Matthews driving and pulling her way to 45 from 30 balls before holing out in the deep.

Webb was the more watchful of the two, making 22 from 24. Georgia Wareham kept the innings moving through the middle overs with 23 from 19.

With four overs left the Renegades were four wickets down.

Five wickets for two runs

They managed two more runs. Across the 17th and 18th overs the Renegades lost five wickets for two runs in seven balls, and the innings closed on 138 for 9.

Voll was at the centre of it, her four wickets coming in a spell that gave the Renegades' lower order nothing to hit and no time to rebuild.

A run-out added a fifth dismissal to her evening's work. She was named player of the match.

Learoyd's career-best innings

The Thunder's reply was never seriously threatened. Learoyd, batting at first drop, hit nine boundaries in her 48 from 37 balls, the highest score of her career.

"I was really nervous," Learoyd said of batting near the top of the order, adding that the start had given her "a little bit of belief" for the season ahead.

She and Heather Knight added 62 for the third wicket, the partnership that decided the match, and took 28 runs from the power surge.

Voll's 25 from 18 included the only six of the match.

Knight and de Klerk finish it

Knight was unbeaten on 29 from 22 when the runs were knocked off, with Nadine de Klerk 12 not out from six balls alongside her.

Tayla Vlaeminck returned the best figures of the night for the Renegades, 2-23 from her four overs, but the total was the problem rather than the bowling.

The Thunder needed only 17 of their 20 overs.

Junction Oval staged both of the day's fixtures as the competition began, and WBBL 12 continued at the same ground with Melbourne Stars against Hobart Hurricanes.

A first win on the board

Learoyd reserved her praise for the player who had made the chase straightforward. "She was great, wasn't she? The true allrounder," she said of Voll.

The win puts the first points of the season on Sydney Thunder's board.

The Renegades, beaten despite the highest individual score of the match, will want more from a batting order that was one down for 56 and nine down for 138.

Scorecard: Melbourne Renegades Women 138 for 9 in 20 overs (Hayley Matthews 45, Georgia Wareham 23, Georgia Voll 4-26) lost to Sydney Thunder Women 140 for 4 in 17 overs (Anika Learoyd 48, Heather Knight 29*, Tayla Vlaeminck 2-23) by six wickets.

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