After a rare stumble, Perth Scorchers are back on track.
The two-time reigning champions defied Sydney Thunder, a savage wicket and looming weather in a seven-wicket victory at Sydney Showgrounds on Monday night.
Zak Crawley defied recent form to make a patient half-century on a wicket slammed as sub-standard and which spun viciously as he led a chase of the Thunder’s 8-137 with five balls remaining.
The conditions made Ashton Agar almost unplayable and he finished 2-6, the second-most economical four-over spell in league history.
The win comes after the Scorchers ended a 10-game unbeaten run with a defeat to Adelaide Strikes on Friday night and thrusts them back into second on the ladder, ahead of consecutive top-of-the-table clashes with Brisbane Heat.
Aaron Hardie opened the bowling with himself — just his second over since becoming captain — and bowled five dots. Alex Hales ate up four dots in Jhye Richardson’s next over, but helped them explode into the power-play when he sent two Hardie balls over the deep-square boundary.
Josh Inglis fumbled a chance to stump Cam Bancroft as Agar’s turn and variable bounce became a problem.
Bancroft was run-out for an uninspiring 19-ball 12, the first of three men to be caught short while batting with a frustrated Hales.
Recalled wrist-spinner Hamish McKenzie’s length control was impressive again as he, Agar and Cooper Connolly became key on a ragging wicket that angered a demonstrative Hales.
“The wicket we are seeing tonight is sub-standard for the BBL,” Australian legend Ricky Ponting told Channel 7.
Tom Kohler-Cadmore was almost run-out on seven, pounded back-to-back Andrew Tye bouncers for sixes and then was eventually run-out in another ugly Hales’ mix-up for 27.
Matt Gilkes was out trying to sweep Agar for a duck and then Oli Davies was barbecued by Hales, leaving the Thunder in a hole at 4-94 after almost 14 overs.
Tye’s grip was effectively that of an off-spinner as he turned to cutter after cutter. One leapt at Alex Ross and struck him in the hand, while Hales even tossed his bat away as he grew more aggrieved at the state of the wicket.
Lance Morris bowled just one over, with pace off the order of the night. Agar’s 2-6 was the second-most economical four-over spell in Big Bash history — after Mitchell Johnson’s 3-3 in the 2017 semifinal — and he and Connolly combined to take 5-31 off eight.
Chris Green and Hales both hit sixes in the final two overs, before the English import’s knock ended on 72 off 55, he and Nathan McAndrew dismissed by mirror-image stumpings in Connolly’s final over.
Gurinder Sandhu gave Zak Crawley three soft leg-stump boundary balls in his first two overs, which were paired with a crunched cover-drive cut from the same cloth as the one off Pat Cummins that opened last year’s Ashes series.
Tanveer Sangha was unleashed after the power-play — which ended at 0-30 — and the turn of Green caught the outside-edge of Sam Whiteman, who used a review to learn the ball had tickled the back of his bat.
Hardie’s control over the middle overs was again the glue that held the Scorchers’ innings together. He swept more than most, ran smartly between wickets and milked the deep square sweepers during his run-a-ball 22.
Thunder turned to part-time spinner Davies late, but it wasn’t until the power-surge they took another wicket.
Crawley — who had battled for timing in the past three matches — tried to put a dent in the final 30 runs, pulled a ball for four despite two fielders being out on the leg-side and then was caught trying to ramp Nathan McAndrew.
With 25 runs to win, Inglis clubbed a six over mid-off and pasted Daniel Sams for four in an over that steadied things, then McAndrew for one over the sight-screen that sealed the match.