WBBL Season 3 (2017-18): Sydney Sixers Win Second Consecutive Title, Sarah Coyte Takes 4/17 in Return from Retirement

Sydney Sixers Women won their second consecutive Women's Big Bash League title on 4 February 2018 at Adelaide Oval, defeating Perth Scorchers Women by 9 wickets — restricting the Scorchers to 99 all out and chasing it at 100/1 in 10.1 overs. The final was played as a double-header at Adelaide Oval alongside the men's BBL Season 7 final. Sarah Coyte took 4/17 as Player of the Final — a match-winning return from retirement. Amy Satterthwaite (Melbourne Renegades) won Player of the Tournament despite her team not reaching the finals; Ellyse Perry scored 552 runs for the winning Sixers across the competition.

Sarah Coyte: 4/17 in Her Return from Retirement

Sarah Coyte's 4/17 in the WBBL Season 3 final — restricting Perth Scorchers to 99 all out and making the 9-wicket chase near-trivial — was one of the most celebrated individual bowling performances in early WBBL history. Coyte's return from retirement to play for Sydney Sixers brought both experience and the specific bowling skills that the WBBL's conditions reward: a right-arm medium-pacer with the ability to swing the ball in Australian conditions, take wickets at the top of the order, and deliver precise bowling at economical rates across four overs in a final. Her 4/17 in the most important match of the season confirmed that her return had been the correct decision — both for her and for the Sixers.

Amy Satterthwaite: Player of the Tournament from a Non-Finalist Team

Amy Satterthwaite (Melbourne Renegades) winning the WBBL Season 3 Player of the Tournament award — from a team that did not qualify for the finals — continued the WBBL's consistent pattern of recognising full-season batting excellence regardless of team outcomes. Satterthwaite, New Zealand's left-handed batter and one of women's cricket's most elegant middle-order players, produced her dominant season in a Renegades squad whose collective performances did not translate into a finals campaign. Ellyse Perry's 552 runs across the competition for the winning Sixers gave their championship an individual batting dimension of exceptional quality even while the team award went to the Renegades' Satterthwaite.

WBBL Season 3 in Context

WBBL Season 3 (2017-18) was played across November 2017 and February 2018 — the expanded season format that Cricket Australia had introduced from Season 3, including more matches and more opportunities for the women's competition to build its broadcast and in-stadium audience. Sydney Sixers' 9-wicket final victory — Perth Scorchers bowled out for 99 — was among the most comprehensive margins in WBBL final history. Katherine Brunt (Perth Scorchers) and Sarah Aley (Sydney Sixers) finished tied on 23 wickets each as the season's joint top wicket-takers — Aley winning the title while Brunt's wickets came from the team that lost it, a further example of individual bowling excellence being distributed across franchises rather than concentrated in the champion side.