Chasing 152, Hurricanes were bowled out for 114 to register a second successive loss

AAP26-Nov-2025South African Marizanne Kapp has again showed how big a loss she will be to the Melbourne Stars once she leaves the WBBL for international duties. Kapp starred in the field as the Stars easily beat Hobart Hurricanes by 37 runs on Thursday at Junction Oval.Their third-straight win left the Stars second on the ladder ahead of Saturday’s massive home derby against the third-placed Melbourne Renegades.While teammate Amy Jones was Player of the Match, Kapp bowled Lizelle Lee with the first delivery of the Hurricanes innings. She removed fellow opener Danni Wyatt-Hodge in the third over and took an outstanding catch to remove No.4 Nicola Carey.But Saturday’s match will be the last for Kapp before she returns to the South African team.”Obviously Kappy is going to be a massive loss – it seems like she’s playing her best cricket, now that she’s leaving us, which is a bit frustrating,” teammate Kim Garth said. “But I feel like we do have the depth to cover it.”Garth added they were worried about what damage Lee could do.”I was pretty relieved – she was hitting them pretty well,” Garth said. “We did a lot of planning for her and when Kappy comes in and knocks her over first ball, it’s quite nice.”After starting the season with five-straight wins, Hurricanes have lost their last two and are in danger of ceding top spot to either Melbourne team.Renegades will host Perth on Thursday ahead of Saturday’s clash against the Stars, who are only one point behind Hurricanes.After Hurricanes won the toss on Wednesday at Junction Oval, Jones and Danielle Gibson gave momentum to Stars’ stalled innings and the home side reached 151 for 6 from their 20 overs. Hurricanes were bundled out for 114 with 22 deliveries left.Jones top-scored with 59 from 40 balls, featuring six fours and a six. Jones and Gibson came together at 91 for 4 in the 14th over – not yet a crisis, but Hurricanes would have felt they had the momentum.Instead, Gibson belted 39 from 27 deliveries, with five fours and a six, as they put on a quickfire 44 for the fifth wicket. Carey took 2-29 from her four overs.After Hurricanes slumped to 59 for 6, captain Elyse Villani and Hayley Silver-Holmes gave them a glimmer of hope with their 40-run stand for the seventh wicket.Then Sophie Day bowled Silver-Holmes for 18 from 14 deliveries and Sutherland bowled Villani for 38 off 21 balls to kill off the late rally.Kapp took 2 for 29 from her four overs, while Sutherland also snared two and Day cleaned up the tail on the way to 4 for 17 from three overs.

It's fair to say that not even Arsenal fans were convinced by the club's decision to pay Chelsea £50 million for Noni Madueke during the summer transfer window – but it's starting to look like a masterstroke, with the winger having produced another stellar performance on the game's grandest stage in Wednesday's Champions League win over Club Brugge.

Just a few weeks after opening his account for the Gunners in the 3-1 defeat of Bayern Munich, Madueke helped himself to a double in a 3-0 victory in Belgium – thus becoming the first player to ever score his first three goals for the north Londoners in the European Cup.

His first effort was a stunner, too, with Madueke showing terrific strength to hold off one challenger and barge past another before rifling a shot into the back of the Brugge net via the underside of the crossbar. The England international's second strike was far more straightforward, as he was completely unmarked and only two yards out when he got his head on the end of a delightful cross from Martin Zubimendi.

Perhaps inspired by what Madueke was producing on the opposite flank, Gabriel Martinelli decided to leave his stamp on the game with a stunning strike of his own after a fortuitous break of the ball on the left wing and, in truth, the visitors could have added even more goals during the closing stages of what proved an ultimately facile win.

GOAL rates all of the Arsenal players on show at the Jan Breydel Stadium as the Gunners made it six wins from six games in this season's Champions League…

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David Raya (7/10):

One second-half save wasn't particularly convincing but the Spaniard will be delighted with his latest shut-out, as he was called into action a lot more than usual.

Ben White (6/10):

Always looking to get forward, particularly in the first half, and also played his part in Arsenal keeping a commendable clean sheet against a dangerous counter-attacking team.

Christian Norgaard (6/10):

With Arsenal shorn of the services of several players, Arteta opted to deploy the Dane as a centre-back in Belgium and while he picked up a booking for a tactical foul, the defensive midfield did well for the most part.

Piero Hincapie (7/10):

A solid showing from the Ecuadorian, who defended well and also twice went close to scoring before being brought off midway through the second half.

Myles Lewis-Skelly (5/10):

Carlos Forbs caused the England international all sorts of problems during the first half but he looked a lot more comfortable after the break.

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Martin Odegaard (6/10):

Very bright early on and nearly scored at one point but the Norwegian was once again quietly efficient rather than overtly influential before his 71st-minute withdrawal.

Martin Zubimendi (8/10):

Another dynamic display from one of Arsenal's best players so far this season. The Basque got through plenty of work in midfield, kept the ball moving and also contributed two assists, the second of which was a cross from the left wing that was just begging to be converted.

Mikel Merino (5/10):

An unusually underwhelming outing from the Spaniard, who surprisingly offered little in attack and was relatively poor in possession. 

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Noni Madueke (8/10):

Starting ahead of Bukayo Saka, Madueke broke the deadlock with a sensational solo strike that his compatriot would have been proud of – before showing good goalscoring instincts to get on the end of Zubimendi's cross. Those of us who doubted his worth to Arsenal are being made to eat our words!

Viktor Gyokeres (4/10):

A painfully ineffective performance from the expensive Swedish striker, who never looked like scoring and touched the ball just 12 times before being hauled off just after the hour mark.

Gabriel Martinelli (8/10):

An absolute livewire down the left wing, the Brazilian tormented his marker throughout and capped a dynamic display with a stunning right-footed strike into the top corner. Fair to say that Martinelli is back to his best.

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Riccardo Calafiori (6/10):

Replaced Hincapie with half an hour to go and slotted seamlessly into the back four.

Gabriel Jesus (6/10):

Made his long-awaited return to action and looked lively, hitting the bar with a thumping late strike. Gyokeres has competition for the central striking berth!

Ethan Nwaneri (6/10):

Brought on with less than 20 minutes to go and saw a couple of good efforts saved in injury time.

Bukayo Saka (5/10):

Part of a double substitution with Nwaneri but didn't make that much of an impact.

Marli Salmon (N/A):

The 16-year-old came on for White in the 81st minute to make his first appearance at senior level.

Mikel Arteta (8/10):

Made excellent use of arguably the strongest squad in Europe, as Arsenal maintained their perfect record in this season's Champions League by sweeping aside a team that had previously held Barcelona to a 3-3 draw.

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