Perth Scorchers have overcome the first hurdle in their search for a second WBBL title, producing a classic comeback to beat Melbourne Stars by 28 runs in a thrilling elimination final at the WACA Ground.

The Stars looked well on their way to victory when positioned at 1-101 in the 13th over, in pursuit of the Scorchers’ first-innings total of 5-173.

But Perth were rewarded for continuing to stick at their task ball, with a spin-induced collapse sparked by Alana King and Lilly Mills seeing the visitors restricted to 9-145 despite the best efforts of the competition’s leading run-scorer Meg Lanning (49).

King said the Scorchers had looked to “stay really calm” as Lanning and Amy Jones built a strong partnership through the middle stages of the Stars’ batting innings.

“It’s funny what finals can do and the pressure building,” she said.

“I’m really proud of how the bowlers came about it, we stuck fat with each other and got the job done in front of our home fans. They thoroughly deserve this finish that we did in front of them.

“We’re absolutely stoked to be continuing on our finals campaign.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet, the emotions are still pretty high and everyone’s just really excited that we’ve got the first final out of the way and we keep rolling.”

The Scorchers will now head to Sydney to take on Sydney Sixers in Thursday’s preliminary final, with a place in Saturday’s grand final against Hobart Hurricanes in Tasmania on the line.

After captain Sophie Devine won the toss and elected to bat, the Scorchers got away to a strong start courtesy of a 107-run opening stand between Beth Mooney and Katie Mack, the pair’s best partnership of the tournament.

Mack was the reserved member of the pair early but opened up with a pair of reverse sweeps which raced to the boundary, going on to bring up her second half-century of the tournament shortly before being caught at mid-wicket for 52.

The power surge brought about Mooney skying a catch to third man to depart for 44 but the promoted Freya Kemp wasted no time in taking advantage of the field restrictions, hitting two boundaries and a six in the first six deliveries she faced.

Despite losing Devine and compatriot Paige Scholfield (both one), the English left-hander looked likely to make the Stars pay for being dropped twice before the third time proved the charm, with Sutherland working her over by stringing together three dot balls before having her caught at point for 35 from just 19 balls.

Without a set batter at the crease for the back end of their innings, the Scorchers were given some late impetus by wicketkeeper Maddy Darke, who hit three boundaries in a brisk 16 not out from only five balls.

Lanning endured a tough start to her innings, not getting off the mark until her eighth delivery and being involved in the run-out of opening partner Rhys McKenna.

But the legendary batter was able to get into the slipstream of former Scorcher Jones, who took on an aggressor role to ensure her side did not fall too far behind the required run rate.

With the game drifting away, King (2-25 from four overs) finally gave the Scorchers a breakthrough by having Jones stumped for 43 from 33 balls to end the pair’s 87-run second-wicket stand.

Mills (2-19 from two overs) followed up on her fellow tweaker’s lead by knocking over Sutherland (five) and Maia Boucher (two) in the next over and the pressure looked to be telling on the Stars when Dani Gibson was run out for five attempting a third run shortly after.

King said she had no doubt that the Scorchers’ slow bowlers would be able to turn the game in their favour.

“I’ve been crying out since I’ve been at the Scorchers that it is spin to win (at the WACA),”

“We just stuck to our game-plan and we kept things really simple. We knew we had to keep the stumps in play as much as we can, we knew we had to keep making them play the shots.”

Melbourne opted to look to arrest their slide by taking the power surge but Chloe Ainsworth stepped up to take the game’s biggest wicket from its first delivery, with Lanning’s attempted cut shot only finding an edge through to Mooney.

No.8 Georgia Prestwidge tried to keep the game alive by hitting the first two balls she faced to the boundary but the Scorchers were able to hold their nerve late, with their ground fielding and outfield catching sublime.