The Perth Scorchers have qualified for their fourth straight KFC T20 Big Bash League Final after another inspired bowling performance led them to an 18-run win over the Melbourne Stars at #TheFurnace on Sunday night.
Andrew Tye went from villain to hero for the Scorchers. He faced the final over of the home team’s innings and didn’t come close to laying bat on ball to six straight slower balls from Clint McKay, but he more than made up for it taking 4-18 with the ball to lead his team home.
The Scorchers struggled in their innings batting first making 7-144 from their 20 overs on the back of 50 from Michael Carberry, 35 from Shaun Marsh and a late 22 from nine balls from the returning Nathan Coulter-Nile.
The Stars’ bowling did well limiting their chase to 145 led by 3-27 from John Hastings and 2-25 from Michael Beer. However, the Scorchers have made the last three BBL finals and won last year’s title based on their terrific defensive bowling and they dismissed the Stars for 126 to book a spot in Wednesday’s final in Canberra against the Sydney Sixers.
Stars openers Cameron White and Luke Wright survived the early barrage from Coulter-Nile, playing his first game since injuring his hamstring on November 21 last year, and Jason Behrendorff but White was struggling and eventually fell for 13 (24) in the seventh over.
The visitors continued to make steady progress through English pair Wright and Kevin Pietersen but the fall of Wright for 31 (25) in the 11th over from Tye started a procession. Peter Handscomb came and went for a duck, Rob Quiney made just seven, Tom Triffitt one and then potential match-winner Pietersen fell to Coulter-Nile when attempting a pull shot. He made 31 from 27 balls with his only six being a remarkable switch-hit sweep off Hogg.
When Pietersen fell the Stars’ chances went with it and they fell 18 runs short bowled out in the final over with their last hope Hastings falling for 22.
The result means that the Scorchers are in a fourth straight BBL final while the Stars are yet to qualify despite a semi-final appearance in each of the four seasons.
Tye quickly shrugged off what happened with the bat in the last over when he was facing Quiney to put in a match-winning spell with the ball.
“I was bashing myself up more than anyone. It was quite embarrassing but I just let that go,” Tye said. “I have been close to getting a big bag all season so I was just very happy that I could get out there and do my job - it was thrilling.”
Stars skipper White couldn’t hide his disappointment over a fourth straight semi-final loss.
“It’s just frustrating because when this team loses, we know we haven’t played our best,” White said. “If we do play our best like you have seen over the last four years, we win more than we lose. It’s always frustrating when you don’t play as well as well as you can.”
James Buttler
As the editor of World Cricket Badger he is intent on building the website to give quality coverage of the domestic game around the world.
He is also the presenter of the Cricket Badger Radio Show on Radio Yorkshire every Tuesday evening between 7-9pm UK time.
James was the full-time Media Manager at Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 2007 and 2010.
James is a published author, a writer/video contributor to many cricket publications and a complete cricket badger!
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