Adelaide captain Matt Short has led the way as his side pulled off the upset of the BBL season, crushing the previously unbeaten Scorchers by nine wickets at Adelaide Oval.
The Strikers had lost their past four games, but chased down the Scorchers score’ of 7-153 with 23 balls to spare on Friday to move off the bottom off the ladder.
Short (76no off 51 balls) and Chris Lynn (50no off 33) put on 98 for the second wicket after the captain and D’Arcy Short (24 off 13) blasted 58 off the first 4.5 overs.
The Scorchers remained second, three points behind the ladder-leading Brisbane Heat with a game in hand.
The leading run-scorer In this season’s BBL, Australian T20 and ODI representative Short notched his fifth half-century of the season, hitting seven fours and four sixes.
Short also played a part with the ball, conceding just 11 runs from his three overs and dismissing Sam Whiteman with the second ball of the Scorchers’ innings.
Two days after leaking 211 to the Scorchers in Perth, Adelaide restricted the west Australian side to their lowest score of the season.
Leggie Lloyd Pope (2-36 off four overs) was promoted to the starting side, giving Adelaide a three-pronged spin attack.
Taking pace off the ball paid off, with the spinners bowling 11 overs and taking three of the first four wickets and the Scorchers notching just six fours to supplement their seven sixes.
“A massive win, we needed it, I think we need the next three in a row as well,” Short told Fox Cricket.
“A massive credit to our bowling group, we’ve been under the pump the last few game they really stepped up tonight.and then its good to get it done with the bat.
“We finally executed what we’ve been talking about the whole tournament with the ball.”
Three batters got a start, but no Scorcher reached 40 as Perth notched their lowest score of the season.
Matt Short. (Photo by Kelly Barnes/Getty Images)
Josh Inglis (39 off 25) and captain Aaron Hardie (35 off 27) hit two and three sixes respectively in their 60-run third wicket partnership, but both were caught off Pope (2-36 off four.)
Laurie Evans, who smashed 85 off 28 balls in the Scorchers’ win over the Strikers on Wednesday, was contained to six off his first 10 deliveries on Friday.
Evans (29 off 21) didn’t get his strike rate up to 100 until his 13th ball.
English pacer David Payne (2-22 off three) struck twice In the final over with Cooper Connolly (23 off 24) one of his victims.
England star Zak Crawley, who had his off stump uprooted on eight by Strikers pacer Henry Thornton, admitted between innings that Perth’s total was short.
“We probably went a little bit hard trying to get 200 which is usually a par score around here,” Crawley told Fox Cricket.
© AAP
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