BBL 2016/17: 5 key moments from the Brisbane Heat vs Perth Scorchers

A fine innings from its captain, followed by a clinical display by its bowlers helped Perth Scorchers overcome Brisbane Heat and move to the top of the table. Put into bat, Scorchers’ captain Michael Klinger led them to 156 with an innings of 81, characterised by hard running between the wickets.

Then, wicket-taking spells by its pacers upfront and miserly bowling in the middle overs by Ashton Agar and Andrew Tye defended the target successfully. Tye finished the match with a four-wicket haul, including a hat-trick, as the Scorchers registered a comfortable 27-run victory.

Klinger was adjudged the ‘Player of the Match’ for his knock.

Brief Scores: Perth Scorchers – 156/5 (Klinger 81 (54), Ian Bell 14 (15); Mitchell Swepson 2/22 (4), Mark Steketee 2/32 (4)Brisbane Heat – 129 19.2 overs (Alex Ross 39 (40), Joe Burns 23 (23); Andrew Tye 4/22 (3.2), Mitchell Johnson 2/25 (4)

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#5 Klinger leads from the front

In an innings in which the next best score was Bell’s 14, Scorchers’ captain Klinger stood out with a single-handed effort that played the decisive part in victory. Put into bat by Brisbane Heat, Scorchers lost Shaun Marsh and Sam Whiteman early in their innings. The rest of the batting too did not impress but the captain stood tall.

Facing up against a good bowling display by Heat’s bowlers, on a pitch where the ball skidded on from the surface and with long boundaries to clear, Klinger combined deft placement through the gaps with quick running between the wickets to carry the team on his shoulders.

The sheer effectiveness of his approach is underlined by the fact that only 36 of his 81 runs were scored in boundaries, but he still managed to score more than half of his team’s total at a strike rate of 150 with minimal risk.

#4 Johnson and Richardson run through Heat’s top order

Johnson picked up 2 wickets and conceded just 25 runs in his 4 overs

With just about 156 to defend, Scorchers needed their strike bowlers to pick up early wickets, in order to seize back the initiative. Mitchell Johnson and Jhye Richardson provided just that with their wicket-taking first spells. The outcome – Heat’s top 3 were back in the hut by the end of the 4th over.

Johnson struck in the very first over of the innings, removing Peirson cheaply for 2 runs. Pitched at good length and angling away, the ball picked the edge of Pierson’s bat and flew to Turner at first slip. In his next over, Johnson scalped Sam Heazlett with another good length delivery that was hit straight into the hands of Agar.

First change bowler Jhye Richardson was clubbed for a long six by McCullum over deep backward square but it turned out to be an anti-climactic moment as the latter’s key wicket was picked by the bowler the very next delivery. Enticed by the fullish length, McCullum attempted an ambitious swing over the long-on fence the next ball but could only hole out to Agar at mid-on.

#3 Agar and Tye dry up the runs

Agar went wicketless but was very economical, giving away just 18 runs in his 4 overs

With Heat’s top 3 – including the dangerous McCullum – back in the pavilion, the Scorchers were in a comfortable position, having pushed Brisbane Heat on the back foot very early into their innings.

However, with not much to defend, it was important for them to keep chugging away and not take the foot off the pedal.

Left-arm spinner Ashton Agar and medium pacer Andrew Tye ensured that runs would dry up in the middle overs with a very disciplined display of bowling. Bowling all of his 4 overs during this phase, Agar played a key role in the successful defence of the target by conceding just 18 runs in his spell despite being the only Scorchers bowler to go wicketless.

#2 Bresnan makes his comeback memorable

Bresnan was impressive in his comeback

The Scorchers went into the match without two of their key all-rounders; Mitchell Marsh and David Willey had been called up for national duty by their respective teams. In came Hilton Cartwright and Willey’s fellow Englishman Tim Bresnan. The England all-rounder had been away from cricket for a while but showed no signs of it in his spell of 2/29.

He started with an 11-run over in which McCullum hit him for a six straight down the ground but came back to pick two important wickets in the middle overs. Left-hander Nathan Reardon was his first victim, caught out by a spectacular effort at mid-wicket by Klinger.

In the final over of his spell, he also accounted for the big hitting Ben Cutting, who was also at the receiving end of an excellent fielding display by the Scorchers, this time by Turner.

#1 Tye cleans up the tail with a hat-trick

Tye finished with 4 wickets in his 3.2 overs

Andrew Tye’s brand of T20 bowling has been a key component in Scorchers’ successful defence of targets in the BBL. Mixing up his pace and surprising the batsmen with his knuckleball, Tye had played a key role in some of their earlier victories. Today, he became only the second bowler in the tournament’s history to complete a hat-trick.

He achieved the feat when he picked the last wicket of the match in the final over of the innings. The first to go was Jack Wildermuth, who edged a fuller length delivery to wicketkeeper Cameron Bancroft off the last ball of the 18th over.

Tye returned to pick Swepson and Steketee off the first two deliveries of the final over to complete the feat across two overs. Swepson was deceived into mishitting a slower one while Steketee’s stumps were cleaned up by Tye’s special knuckleball. As revealed by Tye later, he was unaware of the feat at that time.