The Adelaide Strikers narrowly lost to the Brisbane Heat in a thriller that went down to the last ball at the Gabba on Sunday.
With the Heat needing one run from the final delivery, Liam Scott stormed in to deliver a full-toss outside off stump, with Brisbane’s Mitchell Swepson willing the ball to off stump for the game-winning single.
Nathan McSweeney was the match-winner for the Heat with a gutsy 78 not out after being omitted from Australia’s Boxing Day Test squad.
Things didn’t start well for the Strikers, who were sent in to bat first, with D'Arcy Short falling for 1 at the end of the first over.
Ollie Pope (34 runs off 29 balls) and Chris Lynn (24 off 21) breathed life into the Strikers with some big hitting after a slow start, with Lynn back at his old home and Pope starting his innings with consecutive fours.
But it was Jamie Overton who emerged as Adelaide’s standout with the bat, blasting his way to an unbeaten 45 runs off 24 balls as the Strikers finished on 6-174.
Following the change of innings, Henry Thornton (2-43 from 4 overs) came out firing when he bowled Jimmy Peirson with the final ball of his first over.
Three balls later, Thornton dropped Colin Munro at short mid-wicket, before taking matters into his own hands and shattering Munro’s stumps with an in-swinging length ball.
Matt Renshaw forcefully grabbed the momentum back for the home side with a hard-hitting 54 from 27 balls, his run ending when he knocked a Lloyd Pope delivery into his own stumps.
Pope (2-17 from 3 overs) struck again shortly afterwards when he dismissed Max Bryant LBW following a successful review.
Pope’s pair of wickets drastically slowed the Heat’s progress, but Nathan McSweeney just kept hanging around. He then dialled up the temperature later in the innings and found the boundary 12 times throughout the night.
Brisbane looked like a sure thing late in the piece, but Liam Scott made things very interesting when he started the final over with a dot ball and followed it with the dismissal of Xavier Bartlett.
But it wasn’t to be, with Brisbane escaping with the win on the back of Mitchell Swepson’s desperate single off the final delivery.
The Strikers will return to action when they face the Hobart Hurricanes at Adelaide Oval on December 27.