Perth Scorchers on Friday registered a record fourth title victory in the Big Bash League (BBL) 2021-22 season as they crushed Sydney Sixers by 79 runs to break their winning streak in a stunning contest played out at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne.
Perth Scorchers added a fourth BBL title to their impressive trophy cabinet, having earlier recorded tournament wins in BBL 3, BBL 4 and BBL 6. The team has been away from their ‘home’ since early December, but there was no negative impact on them keeping in mind the challenges thrown by the coronavirus pandemic, as they won an overall 11 matches this season and lost only 3 while earning 40 points in what turned out to be a stunning campaign.
Sydney Sixers were not too far behind — they suffered heavily owing to various injuries and played in the final with a makeshift team. Despite their best efforts, including on the social media, the Sydney Sixers were not able to add their star batsman Steve Smith to the team for the summit clash, as their repeated requests were rejected by Cricket Australia (CA).
CA did not approve Sydney Sixers’ request to include Smith in their side as a last-minute addition ahead of the final for as many as three times, always maintaining that the BBL side had enough options to pick from in their squad and they do not need the services of the world’s best batsman in the longest format, who had suddenly became free and available due to the postponement of the limited-overs series against New Zealand.
In the final, Sydney Sixers’ captain Moises Henriques and veteran spinner Steve O’Keefe played with injuries to their calf while former captain and key batsman Daniel Hughes was declared fit to play as the player and the coaching staff somehow managed his ankle injury.
Sydney Sixers finished second best to Perth Scorchers in the BBL 2021-22 tournament, haing won 9 out of 14 matches played and losing 4. SS had 35 points in their kitty, which was identical to their city-rivals Sydney Thunder who lost only one more game than the Sixers.
On Friday, Sydney Sixers who had won the toss reduced Perth Scorchers to a precarious position of 25/4 at the start but a stunning partnership between Laurie Evans and Ashton Turner produced a remarkable fightback to turn the game in favour of PS, who recovered to post a huge total of 171/6 in the 20 overs.
In reply, Sydney Sixers were shot out for a poor total of 92 in 16.2 overs with Australia fast bowler Andrew Tye returning with 3-0-15-3 while Jhye Richardson taking 2/20 from his 3.2 overs.
Both Evans and Turner scored spectacular half-centuries, with the English batsman registering top score of the BBL 2021-22 final by hitting 4 sixes and as many fours to make an unbeaten 76 from 41 balls. On the other hand, the Australia batsman Turner made 54 from 35 balls with 4 boundaries and one six.
Evans and Turner brought out their best when they added 109 runs from only 54 balls to lead a strong recovery for the Perth Scorchers, who lost wickets in heap at the start of the summit clash against a heavily depleted Sydney Sixers team.
Sydney Sixers played in the final of BBL 2021-22 with only seven fully fit players out of the squad of 18. In the end, the spate of injuries and their inability to play their best possible team combination come back to hurt the Sydney Sixers who were playing the Perth Scorchers in the repeat of last year's final
Sydney Sixers made early inroads as they sent back Kurtis Patterson (1), Josh Inglis (13), Mitchell Marsh (5) and Colin Munro (1) back into the hut with only 25 runs on the board. The veteran Australian spinner Nathan line accounted for both bars and mango whereas O'Keefe removed Inglis while Jackson Bird got rid of Patterson.
This was when Evans and Turner came together to boost Perth Scorchers to a strong position, producing a fine display of their character and spirit while facing their own challenges.
Perth Scorchers team has been locked out of their home state Western Australia due to border control issues owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Perth Scorchers have been on the road for more than 50 days now and the victory would certainly taste sweeter given that they were absolutely dominant in all departments on the big day.
Chasing a big target, Sydney Sixers never really got going as they lost opening pair of Hayden Kerr and Nicholas Bertus inside the first 5 overs, and despite a spirited fightback from Hughes who scored 42 from 33 balls with the help of 2 boundaries and a six, they could not produce any sort of resistance.
Sydney Sixers’ captain Henriques was trapped leg-before by left-arm Australia spinner Ashton Agar, but the real damage was caused by Tye, who accounted for the veteran Daniel Christian (3), Sean Abbott (1) and Ben Dwarshuis (0) to reduce Sydney Sixers to 77/8 from 71/5.
Tye returned with figures of 3-0-15-3 whereas the right-arm Australia fast bowler Jhye Richardson dismissed Nathan Lyon and O'Keefe to add more to his wickets tally in the season. Earlier in the match, Kerr was able to set the record for most wickets for Sydney Sixers in the BBL history when he dismissed Agar for 15.
Hobart Hurricanes’ batsman and the son of former Australia fast bowler Craig McDermott, Ben McDermott finished as the leading run-scorer in the tournament with 577 runs at 48.08 in 13 matches with 2 centuries and 3 fifties. On the other hand, Patterson was the leading run-scorer for the BBL 2021-22 winners with 391 runs in 14 matches at 30.07, hitting four fifties in the process. For Sydney Sixers, Henriques scored 440 runs from 16 matches at 36.66 with two half-centuries in the tournament.
Among bowlers, former Australia fast bowler Peter Siddle was the highest wicket taker with 30 scalps in 17 matches at 17.73 with best bowling performance of 5/23. Kerr took 25 wickets for Sydney Sixers at 15 while Tye was the third best bowler in the tournament and the best for his side Perth Scorchers, claiming 25 wickets in 16 matches at 16.96.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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