WBBL: Perth Scorchers batter Mikayla Hinkley believes they will be ‘unbeatable’ if they can fix batting woes

Perth Scorchers have batting problems papered over by a string of stunning low-total defences. But new recruit Mikayla Hinkley believes they will be unstoppable if they can combine the two together. The Scorchers have a 3-1 record and sit equal top in the Women’s Big Bash League, but they haven’t scored more than 142 this season. Ebony Hoskin bowled a clutch final over in an unlikely defence of 108 against Melbourne Renegades, the fourth lowest in tournament history. Perth now head on the road for their next five matches in Sydney, Melbourne — where they will be the home team in a match at the MCG — Adelaide and Hobart. They don’t return to the WACA Ground until November 23 for their final game of the season. They stumbled to 5-37 on Thursday night before Hinkley and Alana King ran a rescue mission. “You’ve seen what we can do with the ball, it’s just about hitting our straps with the bat now, so once we put those two innings together and we play a holistic game I think we’re going to be unbeatable,” Hinkley said. “We just haven’t hit our groove yet with the bat, but we have two amazing batters in Beth Mooney and Sophie Devine, so it’s going to take one good partnership in the games coming in to really get a total that is going to be hard to chase.” Devine, fresh off leading New Zealand to its first World Cup title, then playing a quick-fire one-day international series against India, has failed to fire with the bat this tournament. New recruit Hemalatha Dayalan is also struggling to adjust to the bounce of Australian wickets, leaving Beth Mooney — who made eight on Thursday but 77, 36 and 31 in their other games — to carry the load. The Scorchers have stacked their top-order with their international talent. Hemalatha bats at No.3 and England gun Amy Jones behind her. It’s an issue flagged after Tuesday night’s win over Brisbane by Mooney, who said “we probably need a bit more from the batting group if we’re being critical”. The Scorchers play Hobart Hurricanes in Sydney on Sunday morning (AWST), then Sydney Thunder in what looms as a top-of-the-table clash on Tuesday afternoon. “We wanted to go out there and try and win because it was our last home game for a little bit. We’re really excited to go over there, the pitches do play a little bit different over in Sydney and Melbourne,” Hoskin said. “The season has gone really, really quickly so far and there are not many games left as well. We have just got to keep winning these games.”