It was a numbers game in the end at Optus Stadium tonight, as the Adelaide Strikers and Perth Scorchers battled it out at the potential of claiming the final place in the Big Bash Finals, counting on a Melbourne Stars loss to the Hobart Hurricanes tomorrow.
As the tale has been all season, Matt Short was on the wrong end of another coin toss and the Scorchers sent the Strikers in for a bat.
Needing early runs on the board, Alex Carey cleared the boundary with the fourth ball of the match and continued on to a quick cameo of 22 (7) before falling to Lance Morris.
Matt Short also hit the boundary half a dozen times on his way to a handy 40 (21).
Runs flowed for the Strikers but unfortunately wickets also fell at consistent intervals.
Liam Scott was the standout of the innings with an outstanding, and very important, 67 from 43 balls.
It was an innings that consisted of four 4’s and five 6’s, resulting in his first Big Bash half-century.
The Strikers lost 4-6 to end their batting innings, all-out for a total of 161.
Set 162 to win, the Scorchers needed to chase the total in 18 overs or less to jump into the top four.
Equally, the Strikers needed to restrict the Scorchers to 146 or less to give them a chance at a Finals campaign.
It took less than three overs for Liam Scott to find his way into the game once again, taking a cracking catch off Brendan Doggett to restrict the host’s fast start in the Powerplay.
Spin restricted the Scorchers with Doggett and Carey combining for a fantastic run-out and D’Arcy Short teaming up with Carey only two balls later for a classic stumping.
The Scorchers sat at 3-85 at the halfway point and the story was fairly consistent from there.
D’Arcy Short claimed his second wicket and Matt Short also contributed with one of his own, but runs continued to flow and the Strikers ultimately were unable to restrict the Scorchers on their chase to the top four.
Thank you to all our loyal Strikers fans for your support this season – we can’t wait to see you back out at Adelaide Oval again for BBL|15.