Sydney Sixers' Oracle-esque comeback

Is it on? A couple of weeks ago, the pink team from Sydney were a rabble, needing a comeback of impossible proportions. But Week Six of the WBBL was fittingly all about the Sixers, and with one weekend to play, they are over halfway there.

Captain Ellyse Perry compared their plight to the America's Cup yacht race when the Oracle team famously beat New Zealand from 8-1 down. After six losses to start their season, the equation for Sydney was just as simple. Win all eight of their remaining matches and make the finals. So far they've ticked off five, four of them on the weekend just gone.

Marizanne Kapp continues to asphyxiate batting line-ups with the new ball, Sarah Aley has settled as her support after a difficult start, and a few runs were finally chipped in from Sarah McGlashan, Ashleigh Gardner and Alyssa Healy.

But to truly be an Oracle comeback, it needs to be led by the skipper, leaving Perry to take the role of the charmingly named Jimmy Spithill. More than anyone, she has been the barometer of her team's turnaround.

After their first half dozen dismal outings, the star allrounder had taken one wicket at the pointless end of a lost chase, and had been targeted so successfully that she got through her full four overs only once.

She had three single-digits scores, and the contributions she did make were in terrible contexts: a 24 that was far too slow in chasing 190; a 28 as her side splatted for 80; then 45 as nine teammates made single figures around her.

Noticeably more aggressive in Week Six, Perry's fluency returned with a rush: 236 runs as an opener across Sydney's four wins, with three half-centuries and a 47. That was key in downing Strikers and Renegades twice each, with four wickets from some tidy spells for good measure.

Perry has bombed in from nowhere to third on the tournament runs list within a weekend. The Sixers have gone from finished to finals contention. Like Jimmy Spithill, the answer might have been as simple as changing tack. Like Jimmy, they have to keep winning.

Square leg. Midwicket. Long-on. Over the sightscreen.

In the space of 15 balls on Sunday, New Zealand international Sophie Devine put on a display of picket-clearing power hitting at the Junction Oval to rival Grace Harris back in Week Two.

Her unbeaten 47, including 26 from the final over, propelled Strikers to the second-highest score in the WBBL so far, their 4 for 169 comfortably accounting for Stars. It was payback after Sarah Taylor's 78 not out wasn't enough to chase Melbourne's 158 in the reverse fixture two days earlier.

Sarah Coyte's elevation in the second match was timely as she clobbered 72 from 55 balls after the usual run machine Taylor had a rare failure. A regular in the national side as a bowler, Coyte then took three top-order wickets in even balls to finish with 3 for 12.

Hence, of course, the frustration that Strikers create. Match-winners with ball and bat scattered through their list, destructive players in the best and varied traditions of cricket, yet only four wins to show for it with three to play.

It's the same story for Renegades, who put in a sterling performance on television for the second consecutive Saturday, beating the ladder-leader Sydney Thunder with apparent ease, only to go AWOL again as soon as the cameras stopped rolling.

New Zealand international Rachel Priest (57) led the charge to 139-8 against Thunder, then a spin department led by cagey offie Molly Strano (3-20) bowled out the top side for 103. But in losing twice to the Sixers, the Renegades only illustrated the narrowness of the gap between top and bottom, rather than bridging it.

The WBBL's worth as a shop window for national selectors was proved this week when two Thunder teammates - the 17-year-old seamer Lauren Cheatle and big-hitting 21-year old Naomi Stalenberg - were picked in the Southern Stars squad to play India in three T20 internationals.

Cheatle has been rewarded for consistency: the left-armer's 17 wickets across 11 games is equal second in the tournament, having combined new-ball duties with current national bowler Rene Farrell. Stalenberg, meanwhile, has produced some blistering hitting in the vein of Harris and Devine.

Cheatle is one of several teenagers who have impressed over the last six weeks at the very start of their domestic careers. Indeed, Thunder's success has been based on their youthful XI.

Belinda Vakarewa, would you believe, is 15 years old. That didn't stop Alex Blackwell throwing her the ball at the death against the Renegades, 2-13 her reward. Earlier that innings, 19-year-old Maisy Gibson backed up three wickets on debut the previous weekend to give her legbreaks plenty of air, taking the off-stump of England star Danni Wyatt.

On young legspinners, our guest from last week was at it again on Sunday, Strikers' Amanda Wellington flummoxing the best player in the world. Wellington's first ball should have had Meg Lanning stumped but for sloppy glovework. Not to be deterred, the spinner bowled Lanning around her legs the same over. A consensus has formed: Wellington another to hit the national squad sooner rather than later.

Fourteen. That is the number. Fourteen points is the mark you need to beat to be sure of finals, in the final flurry of games that will mark the end of the home-and-away WBBL rounds.

But even ending up on fourteen might be enough. If you're lucky. Six of the eight teams could end up on that number, with three finals places decided on net run rate.

All this will be decided across 11 games over three days, with the Sydney derby to be screened live on Ten.

Let's walk through what we would need to reach that magical confluence. Thunder are top on 16, so they would need to keep winning. Renegades are last on six, so they would need to keep losing.

Hurricanes in second place are on 14, so they would need to lose their coming games, once to Stars and twice to Sixers.

Those wins would take the latter two teams to 14 as well, where they would stay if Thunder did a job for us by beating them both in their remaining games.

Heat have one left, a tough trip to South Australia. If Strikers win that, and twice against the Renegades, they will cosy up to Heat on 14 points apiece.

Finally it's down to Scorchers to beat Renegades twice to add four points from their last two games to the ten they have in the bag.

Alternatively, if Renegades reverse their troubles and win their last four, they will hit 14 points themselves, but would keep Strikers and Scorchers from the mark in doing so.

Currently Renegades, Strikers and Sixers will struggle most with net run rate if points are tied, but given those teams would need to keep winning, and others need to lose, those numbers will keep shifting.

Or, in a world that is less numerically perfect, we could have five teams on 16 points if Thunder lose everything to Sixers and Stars, Hurricanes beat Stars but lose twice to Sixers, and Heat beat Strikers.

Still with us?

Whatever the case, it's a free-for-all on the last weekend, with every team still in the hunt when the round starts on Friday, and the strong chance of finals places being decided deep into Sunday afternoon.