MATCH REPORT
Follow UsThere is always a feeling of joy after registering the first win of the season in a marquee tournament. Irrespective of the hiccups, Brisbane Heat opened their account after a struggle in past three matches.
It was a game of roller-coasters for both the teams. Good start, faulty middle overs and a nervy finish. However, it was blitz from the young debutant and an injury to James Faulkner that came as a blessing in disguise for the Heat. James Bazley came into bat in a dicey situation alongside the skipper. But, his collective intent of aggression and sensibility saw him score an unbeaten 31 off 19 balls. After a jittery chase, a six of the last ball of the 16th over reduced the target to 11 runs of the last three overs. After few singles of the first three balls, Bazley smashed a six following a wide to level the score
The situation was brought on to themselves by the Heat batsmen. Chasing a sub 150 total, they were off to a flyer in the first Powerplay scoring 46 runs without a loss of wicket. Heazlett went further after he smashed Parker for three consecutive sixes in the fifth over. By that point, Heat had already earner the Bash Boost. Later came the big slip, it was just one wicket that was needed and Nathan Ellis provided that in the seventh over.
After a 73-run opening partnership was broken, Heat were reduced to 102 for 6, which meant, six wickets were lost for a mere 29 runs. A steely partnership of 50 runs between the skipper, Jimmy Peirson and Bazley for the seventh wicket saw them through.
THE MIDDLE OVER BLUNDER
Both the teams had a horrendous middle overs phase (7-15). There was a flurry of wickets in both the innings in this phase.
In the first innings, it was all going well for Hobart after the end of field restrictions. Just as the innings was heading towards a Short special, Lewis Gregory changed the course of play. Another debutant who had a fabulous outing. In his first two overs, Gregory bagged three wickets and Steketee chipped in with one wicket. Hurricanes had lost four wickets in overs 7-15.
It has been a common sighting when Hurricanes are batting, their struggles throughout this season have been in the Power surge and today was also the same. In total, they have lost nine wickets in 9.3 overs of Power surge.
The situation wasn’t different for Heat. In fact, they were off to an even better start than the Hurricanes. After a bad day with the bat, Short turned the game with his Chinaman magic. The three crucial batsmen, Dan Lawrence, Sam Heazlett and Tom Cooper fell prey to Short. Three overs three wickets, in total five wickets in the middle overs phase (7-15). The only difference was Heat’s stupendous start in the first Powerplay.
DEBUTANT’s DAY OUT
There were four changes in today’s match, two from each team. Interestingly, all four of the players were making their BBL debut. However, it was two players who had a memorable one. Gregory playing for the first time bagged three wickets for an economy of less than 6.0. His spell of 3 for 22 is the fifth-best by a debutant in BBL. His teammate, Bazley who dropped a sitter in the first innings recovered well with the bat by scoring an unbeaten 31 off 19 balls, a vital knock in the situation he came in.
As far as the other two debutants are concerned, the T20I world number 1 batsman, Dawid Malan could score only 15 runs on his debut outing and Wil Parker bowled only one over that was a forgetful one.
POINTS TABLE
Though the Hurricanes lost this match, they are sitting pretty at number three with a healthy net run rate of +0.127. With a Bash Boost and the first win, Heat leapt from bottom of the table to the sixth spot with five points and a negative net run rate of -0.189. The two sides will be facing each other again in their next fixture at the same venue on the 30th of December.
