"Started from the bottom now we're here", this has exactly been the story of the Perth Scorcher, who won eight out of their last nine league games to make it to the BBL Final. Today also they put in an exemplary performance with both bat and ball, defeating Brisbane Heat by a huge margin of 49 runs in a rain-curtailed affair at the Manuka Oval. Liam Livingstone was the hero with the bat for the Scorchers while Jason Behrendorff gave early jolts to the Heat.
With this win, the Scorchers go to the SCG in Sydney where they will face the Sixers who defeated them in the Qualifiers early on at the Manuka oval.
Chasing a revised target of 200 in just 18 overs, the Scorchers couldn’t get the desired result as skipper Chris Lynn got out early, without putting an impactful performance as was expected from him. Eventually, the entire team came falling as the pressure of scoring at such a high rate from the very first ball got big on them.
Joe Burns tried his best to keep the fight going, but it was too much to ask of him. As soon as heroes from the previous games like Jimmy Peirson and Marnus Labuschagne got out under the pressure it went all downhill for the Brisbane Heat. Burns’ 38 of 24 was the highest individual score from Brisbane while chasing 200 which tells us a sorry tale of the chase. Behrendorff took two early wickets and was helped by the likes of Aaron Hardie and Andrew Tye in cleaning up the tail as they both took three and two wickets respectively.
Earlier in the day, Heat won the toss and put Scorchers in. The Scorchers made the most of that opportunity as they built a great opening partnership of 114 runs with Liam Livingstone hitting 77 off just 39 balls to destroy the Heat bowling attack, which has been the USP of the Lynn led side in the finals. Neither of the spinners in Mitchell Swepson and Labuschagne could get going, rather Labuschagne was taken to the cleaners as he conceded 36 in his two overs.
Mitchell Marsh followed in Livingstone’s footsteps as he too scored a quickfire 49* off just 28 balls to get Perth to 189-1 in 18.1 overs. Cameron Bancroft, Livingstone’s opening partner played the anchor role scoring 58*, while the latter was awarded the Man of the Match for his brilliant performance.
Speaking on his performance, Livingstone said, “I have been working hard but haven't had the best of the tournament, so nice to get some runs under the belt and now looking forward to the final.”
Not being able to play their Challengers at home, Livingstone said that the team would look to win the Trophy and bring it home for the fans who missed the game due to covid-19 restrictions.
“There will be a bit of spice (against the Sixers) especially after what happened in the Qualifier. It will be good to play in front of a full crowd again. Hopefully, we can bring it home on Saturday,” he said.
Powered by Froala Editor
Powered by Froala Editor