Perth Scorchers captain Ashton Turner, teenager Cooper Connolly and Nick Hobson have all produced heroic knocks to lead their side to a thrilling five-wicket victory over the Brisbane Heat “nobodies” in the BBL final.
In reply to the Heat’s 7-175 on Saturday night, the Scorchers were looking wobbly at 3-54 in the eighth over in front of 53,866 fans at Optus Stadium.
But a knock of 53 off 32 balls from Turner helped turn the tide the Scorchers’ way, with the skipper joining Josh Inglis (26 off 22 balls) in a crucial 80-run stand.
The disastrous run out of Turner with 39 runs still needed off 19 balls put the game back on a knife’s edge.
But the 19-year-old Connolly (25no off 11 balls) stepped up to the plate with a series of big shots.
The Scorchers still needed 10 runs to win off Michael Neser’s final over.
This time it was Hobson’s turn to shine.
Hobson, who had been responsible for the run out of Turner, made glorious amends, cracking a huge six before following it up with a four to secure a famous victory.
Scorchers’ players streamed onto the field in wild celebrations after the winning runs secured the franchise a record fifth title.
Hobson, who finished unbeaten on 18 off just seven balls, admitted he had felt “awful” after Turner was run out with both batsmen mid-pitch.
“Ash is an amazing leader,” Hobson said.
“When we were sitting there waiting for the decision (about which batsmen would be out), he said, ‘mate you’re a gun, you’ll get us over the line’.
“There was no resentment.”
The Heat were left to rue a costly dropped catch in the dying moments of the match.
The Scorchers needed 19 more runs for victory when Connolly’s skied catch was dropped by Josh Brown.
“It’s a steep learning curve, it doesn’t get much bigger,” Heat captain Jimmy Peirson said of the drop.
“He’ll be ok. Everyone drops catches; I’ve dropped plenty and it won’t be the last he drops.”
The brave Heat did well just to make the decider.
The team sat in last spot on the ladder just 22 days ago before winning four of their last five games to sneak into the finals in fifth spot.
The Heat then won away finals against the Sydney Thunder, Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Sixers to make the decider, but they started as rank underdogs against a Scorchers outfit hunting their another crown.
Brisbane were even labelled “nobodies” by the local newspaper in Western Australia due to the absence of Usman Khawaja, Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson and Marnus Labuschagne to Test duties.
“Just FYI. We keep our receipts,” the Heat tweeted on Saturday alongside a picture of the liftout that was headlined: “Scorchers versus a bunch of nobodies”.
Those ‘nobodies’ stepped up and gave the Scorchers an almighty scare before Turner, Connolly and Hobson got Perth home.
“We actually didn’t know about it until the head coach Wade Seccombe said, ‘hey boys look at this’,” Peirson said of the newspaper headline.
“It’s to be expected. It’s their home turf and it’s all tongue-in-cheek. We’re not household names, it doesn’t offend us at all.”
© AAP 2023
