Taylor's enterprise, Schutt's incision key in Strikers win

That there is an appetite across Australia for the Women's Big Bash League is beyond doubt. When the tournament debuted on Channel Ten's digital channel One before Christmas, Brisbane Heat's fixture with Adelaide Strikers had a peak audience of 427,000 and a national average of 250,000. The A-League, which ran concurrently, was overhauled by three viewers to one. Furthermore, 2466 showed up at the Gabba to watch that game.

It has been such a roaring success that Saturday's Melbourne derby has been booted up from One to Channel Ten itself. Cricket Australia have played their part and can take plenty of credit. CA have footed the bill for 50% of Channel Ten's broadcast costs, a figure ESPNcricinfo understands amounts to around $500,000. With the world's finest players on show, the intrigue goes beyond an Australian audience too; fans globally - and in England particularly - have taken to social media to bemoan the lack of syndication of the competition's rights. That will have to wait for next year.

The sight of a lengthy queue outside Adelaide Oval before the gates opened on New Year's Eve ahead of Strikers' fixture against Perth Scorchers provided further reminder, if such a thing was required, of the competition's appeal. One local newspaper had the Strikers women alongside the men on its front and back pages as well as a double-page poster spread in the middle of the paper, too. The result was 4500 fans in the ground by the game's halfway point.

They were not to be disappointed in the Strikers' 35-run win over the Scorchers. An array of top international stars variously impressed and entertained. Sarah Taylor, at her best the women's game's most dashing and daring batter, was in spectacular form early in the Strikers' innings. Taylor took 17 from her England team-mate Katherine Brunt's second over, including four fours; first she flicked past short fine-leg, before consecutively sending it through square-leg, and finally finding a sumptuous cover drive. Later, Taylor showed off her wicketkeeping class with three stumpings, two of which came off 18-year-old Amanda Wellington's outstanding leg-breaks, and the third an impossibly sharp chance to end Jenny Wallace's brief counter-attack in the penultimate over.

If Taylor set the Strikers on the way to their comfortable victory, then it was the bowling, first of Megan Schutt, then Wellington, that sealed the deal. Schutt's four overs first up claimed the key wickets of Nicole Bolton and Deandra Dottin in figures of 3-11 while Wellington, a fearless legspinner, was unafraid to give the ball flight, spin it hard and test the outside edge.

In consecutive overs, Wellington fooled both Charlotte Edwards - who never really got going - and Heather Graham in the flight, before producing a looping, turning, drifting ripsnorter of a delivery that Piepa Cleary could not even get close to first ball. Wellington claimed 3-13 without conceding a boundary off the bat, including a third over that will live long in the memory.

After Taylor's early burst with the bat, and a fine opening partnership with Stacy-Ann King, who slashed a cut and flicked well behind square but never truly got going, the Strikers faltered a little. The left-arm spin of Katie-Jane Hartshorn caught King leg before, followed immediately by Bridget Patterson, too. New Zealand's Sophie Devine shared 41 with Taylor, before the latter was bowled swiping to leg looking for her half-century. Devine clocked along prettily for a run-a-ball 32 including consecutive boundaries off Brunt. She fell caught on the fence at the start of the penultimate over of the innings, and some enterprising hitting from Shelley Nitschke took Strikers to 135.

The Scorchers' very makeable chase - particularly with a batting line-up so strong, even without Suzie Bates - started disastrously, and never recovered. Edwards pushed Schutt's second ball onto the off side and set off, but her partner Elyse Villani remained stationary and was run out. Bolton twice cut Devine for four, but soon became Schutt's first victim, and some lusty hitting from Dottin was ended by a careless attempted ramp that ended up in square-leg's hands. When Chloe Piparo was castled two balls later, the game lay in the hands of English pair Edwards and Brunt. But Wellington accounted for both, and despite Wallace's best efforts the tail was docked. All of Adelaide Oval - filling by the minute - rejoiced.