In their final group game, the Perth Scorchers defeated Melbourne Stars by six wickets to take top spot in the Big Bash League.
Within the 17th over, Scorchers’ 131-point partnership between Finn Allen (69) and Aaron Hardie (41) helped them beat their target.
Mitchell Marsh (12) and Cooper Connolly (2) were caught in three balls by star seamer Haris Rauf, who then dismissed Josh Inglis for one in his next over to leave Scorchers (26-3).
After Hardie and Allen rebuilt the innings, Peter Siddle took the match inside, but Hardie held on, cutting a winning four in the next over with the scores level.
At the end of the second over, the Stars were 15-3, but Marcus Stoinis (55) assisted in creating a platform alongside Campbell Kellaway (19) and Hilton Cartwright (13).
With 10 balls left in their innings, Stars lost their final six wickets for 30 runs after being bowled out for it after Stoinis’ dismissal, which was caught off English seamer David Payne.
Both teams will be watching who will face them in the midweek qualifiers on Sunday in the final group game between Brisbane Heat and Sydney Sixers in fourth place.
In Tuesday’s qualifier between the table toppers and runners-up, the Sixers will face Scorchers instead of the now-second-place Hobart Hurricanes.
Sixers would face Stars, who are still in third place after losing to them on Saturday.
A victory for Heat would enable them to surpass the Sixers in the final qualifying round, setting up a Wednesday Stars game.
Adelaide Strikers’ eight-wicket hammering of Melbourne Renegades was the previous game’s best performance of the season.
Within the 12th over, the Strikers, who are unable to advance to the play-offs, chased down their target of 100.
With the first two balls of the innings, Renegades immediately faced off against Tim Seifert and Jake Fraser-McGurk.
The Melbourne side were bowled out in the 17th over when South African spinner Tabraiz Shamsi took the final four wickets before registering a score of 4-15.
Before falling to Shamsi, Captain Will Sutherland was the only Renegades batter to pass the age of 38 before he became the third batter to do so.
Before Chris Lynn (27) and Liam Scott (18), the match was ended by Strikers openers Alex Carey and Matthew Short, who both scored 22 and 30 respectively.
The bottom-three Renegades finish their campaign in sixth place, while Strikers wrap up their campaign in sixth place, finishing last year’s campaign in the bottom three.
Source: BBC
Leave a Reply