Sydney captain Brad Haddin smashed 76 runs to guide the Sixers to a seven-wicket victory over Brisbane in the opening Big Bash match of the summer on Friday night.
Haddin’s top knock followed the great work of 40-year-old spinner Stuart MacGill who returned from a three-year retirement to take 2-21 and help restrict the Heat to 8-139, despite the best efforts of Dan Christian (32) and Matt Hayden (29).
Thanks to Haddin and Nic Maddinson (28) the Sixers were rarely troubled, with allrounder Moises Henriques (5) hitting the winning runs as the home team reached 3-140 with eight balls to spare.
MacGill didn’t miss a beat in his cricketing comeback, taking the big wickets of Hayden and Brendon McCullum as part of a classy spell with good support provided by young quicks Josh Hazlewood (2-24) and Mitchell Starc (2-28).
Haddin has to attend a national team batting camp at the request of coach Mickey Arthur prior to the Boxing Day Test along with other members of Australia’s misfiring top order.
But he looked to have worked his way back into form in front of 12,285 fans at the Sydney Cricket Ground thanks to the shortest form of the game, putting on 79 for the second wicket with Maddinson.
Haddin took 16 off one over from Alister McDermott and hammered back-to-back sixes of former Test spinner Nathan Hauritz before bringing up his 50 with another towering six off Nick Buchanan.
MacGill admitted to having some sleepless nights in the lead-up to the match, but said he knew early on that he was set for a good performance.
“I can’t begin to tell you how nervous I was before tonight,” MacGill told reporters.
“Everything I wanted out of this experience has happened.
“… I didn’t want to bowl badly. That was the most important thing.
“I wanted to put them roughly where I wanted to.
“(Coach) Trevor Bayliss hit the nail on the head when I came in and he said ‘I was happy when the first one landed in the right spot’ and so was I.”
Haddin could not hide his delight at MacGill’s bowling performance.
“I thought he was outstanding tonight,” Haddin said.
“I could see a bit of nervous energy from the Queensland batters remembering him in his glory years.”
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