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Perth Scorchers players celebrate with the trophy after winning the Big Bash League (BBL) Twenty20 cricket final between Perth Scorchers and Brisbane Heat at Optus Stadium in Perth on 4 February 2023 – AFP
PERTH, AFP: Teenager Cooper Connolly’s big hitting at the death and skipper Ashton Turner’s heroic 53 saw Perth Scorchers beat Brisbane Heat to win an unprecedented fifth Twenty20 Big Bash League title on Saturday.
Their fireworks propelled them to 178-5 and a nail-biting five-wicket win with four balls left in front of a record 53,886 parochial fans at Perth Stadium after Brisbane put on 175-7.
It was a successful title defence by a side who beat the Sydney Sixers in last season’s decider, with Saturday’s win securing a fifth trophy in only the competition’s 12th year.
“It’s a surreal feeling. I’ve played a lot of games of cricket but you never know how it will pan out,” said man-of-the-match Turner after his 32-ball knock. Turner was run out after a horror mix-up with Nick Hobson, leaving them with 39 needed off 19 balls.
But young gun Connolly smashed 25 off 11 balls to turn the game on its head.
He crunched 18 of those from a James Bazley over to leave them needing 20 off the final 12 balls.
Hobson then smashed a huge six followed by a no-ball five in the last over to secure the victory.
Perth earned home-ground advantage after finishing on top of the regular season table, then knocking off the Sixers in a qualifying match last weekend.
The Heat only finished fifth and had to come through three knockout games, all away from home, to reach the final.
Both teams were depleted with the Heat’s Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Matt Renshaw and Mitchell Swepson all departing earlier this week for Australia’s tour of India.
The Scorchers were without fast bowler Lance Morris and teammate Ashton Agar who are also preparing for the four-Test Border-Gavaskar series starting on Thursday in Nagpur.
