Perth Scorchers 146 for 3 (Allen 50, Connolly 48*, Turner 35*, Thornton 2-26) won Adelaide Strikers 142 for 8 (Doggett 47*, J Richardson 3-29, Behrendorff 2-14, Morris 2-19) by seven wickets
The Scorchers end 2024 in second position on the BBL ladder after recording a seven-wicket win over the Adelaide Strikers on New Year’s Eve.
Perth’s response, however, was not without drama.
Matt Hurst fell twice before being bagged for three, and the Scorchers should have been 13 for 3 when Connolly, with four, edged Doggett off wicketkeeper Ollie Pope, but only the bowler offered a quiet appeal.
The pair exchanged words before clashing again when Overton ran at Allen retreating into the non-striker’s side, but did not comply with the appeal, instead cheerfully warning the New Zealander for retreating too far.
After Doggett castled Allen, Turner came in and finished the job by crushing Boyce 6, 6, 4.
Earlier, the Strikers fell to 58 for 8 before Doggett, whose previous best score in Twenty20 was 10*, and Boyce became unlikely batting allies.
Only D’Arcy Short (22) and Ross (20), replacing the injured Matt Short, who suffered a broken toe against Hobart Hurricanes last Friday, reached double figures for Adelaide before the resurrection work of Doggett and Boyce .
“You have to give them credit, they bowled well in the first 6 to 10 overs,” said Strikers opener Short. “It was nice for the guys to score a little bit for us to try to defend, but in the end it wasn’t enough.”
Pope (1) and Chris Lynn (1) narrowly missed out before Jake Weatherald (8) fell to a stunning one-handed catch from Andrew Tye, launching himself skywards at mid-wicket.
The pacer had Overton push Ashton Agar at backward point, then clean-up Liam Scott with an excellent Yorker next ball.
“(Winning) was nice,” Richardson said. “We would have liked to keep them even lower in score. Coming into today, we know this is a high-scoring place and (giving up) 140-something, we would have taken advantage of it every day.”
The Strikers, who lost 6 for 18 in 30 balls, were rescued by Doggett and Boyce, who combined for an unbroken 84-run stand, the best ever for the penultimate wicket.
The Richardson trio (3 of 29), Jason Behrendorff (2 of 14) and Lance Morris (2 of 19) were the main destroyers with the ball for the visitors, whose only concern came when Agar left the field with back spasms, although the Scorchers do not believe they will miss any games.
“I would expect him to come back next game,” Richardson said. “It was an unfortunate spasm at the wrong time. I think he’ll be fine.”
