The NSWIS Blues have booked a place in this season's National Women's Cricket League finals series after storming to dual wins over the Western Fury in Perth this weekend.

After being tested all the way in an eight wicket win with only eight deliveries to spare on Saturday, the Blues revelled in warm conditions on Sunday to claim a 105-run win.

Openers Lisa Sthalekar and Lisa Keightley were the stars, combining in partnerships of 142 and 124 at the top of the order that laid the platform for two impressive New South Wales innings.

In the aftermath of national captain Belinda Clark's relocation to Victoria, national squad member Sthalekar's progression to an opening batting role has become one of the defining features of the Blues' unbeaten season.

"I've only recently started opening the batting, so it was nice to have a good innings on Saturday and then to follow it up on the Sunday. That was my goal for the weekend, so I was pretty happy with that. More importantly, Lisa and I are now starting to get some good partnerships going," said Sthalekar.

The 22-year-old also claimed two wickets for the weekend with her medium pace to claim dual Player of the Match awards and assume the leading role in guiding the Blues into the best-of-three finals series that begins on 2 February.

"It takes a lot of pressure off us going into the final round (against Victoria) now," said Sthalekar of the morale-boost that the guaranteed top-two finish offers the team.

"Hopefully, we can just enjoy ourselves now and work on the things that we need to improve without that pressure of trying to make the finals."

Though they are now condemned to finish the season winless, the Fury were far from disgraced in either match. Their total of 6/209 in the opening match of the weekend was the sixth highest in NWCL competition this summer, and their bowlers complemented the effort by pushing the Blues to the closest finish among their six completed games.

Zoe Goss (59), Heather Taylor (41) and Angele Gray (36) were in fine touch on Saturday, and Julianne Langley (29) led the upper order well as it followed up with more impressive batting on Sunday. Albeit that a total of five run outs - and seven in total for the weekend - ensured that no player was able to reach the thirties in the second of the two matches.

Alas, Keightley and Sthalekar's ability to build two big partnerships also remained one of the big differences between the teams.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd