There were two BBL matches today – first at the Docklands Stadium in Melbourne the Renegades played host to Brisbane Heat, and then in Perth the Scorchers played host to Adelaide Strikers. At the start of today all four of these teams had mathematical chances of qualifying, as also did incumbent fourth placers Melbourne Stars. By the end of today only one of the four teams in action retained a chance of qualifying. This post looks at how the day unfolded.
BRISBANE BOWLERS BATTERED
Brisbane Heat batted first, and a score of 196-4 should at least have tested their hosts. Unfortunately some very ordinary bowling and a quite magnificent innings from Jake Fraser-McGurk (95 off 46 balls) saw Renegades win by three wickets with two whole overs to spare, a result that put Renegades fourth, ahead of city rivals Stars on net run rate, but with the latter having a game in hand, to be played tomorrow. Scorecard here.
GAMES WITHIN GAMES
Adelaide Strikers found themselves batting first, and started at a tremendous gallop, looking likely to score over 200 for a significant part of their innings. However they suffered a horrendous batting collapse from a high water mark of 88-2 after 7.1 overs, ending up being all out for 161 from 19.1 overs.
The Perth Scorchers innings was where games within games came into play – they needed 162 from 20 overs to win, but a close match would see both sides eliminated, one on absolute terms and the other on net run rate. The calculations revealed that Scorchers needed to knock the runs off in 18 overs or less to move into fourth on net run rate, while Strikers needed to restrict Scorchers to 146 or less to take fourth spot themselves.
At the half way stage Scorchers were 85-3, ahead of the basic required rate, but short of where they needed to be to win in 18 overs or less. When the fourth wicket pair were still in residence at the end of the 12th over Scorchers took their two over Power Surge, quite rightly – with the 18 over win in mind they could have delayed at most one more over while still getting full benefit from their surge. In the event they did superbly in those two overs, scoring 31 runs and losing only one wicket. In the course of 16th over two things happened – first Scorchers moved to 147, which ensured that Strikers were eliminated even if they somehow won from there, and then the Scorchers 150 came up. At the start of the 17th over 11 runs were needed and Scorchers had two overs in which to get them to stay alive in the tournament. In point of fact it took Cooper Connolly precisely two balls to complete the job, with the third and fourth sixes of his innings. Connolly had scored 39* (21), and Scorchers had won by six wickets with 3.4 overs of their allocated 20 unused, and 1.4 overs of the 18 that they had at their disposal given net run rate considerations. Thus Scorchers currently sit fourth, with one group game, tomorrow morning between Hobart Hurricanes, already confirmed as winners of the league stage, and Melbourne Stars who will qualify if they can win, or if the match is washed out, or if it is tied and the Super Over is also tied. Scorecard here.
PHOTOGRAPHS
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