Sydney Thunder 158 for 7 (Konstas 53, Andrews 37*, Morris 3-43) beat Perth Scorchers 97 (Hardie 22, Green 3-13, McAndrew 2-21) by 61 runs
BBL powerhouse Scorchers require a miracle to reach the finals after slumping to a fourth straight defeat.
Konstas fires, Andrews provides late lift
On a surface known for being sluggish and favouring spin, Konstas and fellow opener David Warner decided to go for broke against the new ball.
They smashed 36 runs in the first three overs with Warner setting the tone with an early blow over the infield before being overtaken by Konstas.
Konstas mixed elegant strokes with trademark inventiveness to race to 28 off 12 balls, but Warner’s dismissal in the last over of the powerplay triggered a collapse.
Konstas could not find the strike as Thunder’s batters struggled mightily on a surface that started to become difficult to bat on. They didn’t score a boundary for almost 10 overs until Konstas cleverly reverse-swept Connolly’s left-arm spin for a boundary.
He finished the innings with a six down the ground in a final over that cost 25 runs – the most expensive of veteran Jason Behrendorff’s T20 career.
Beardman debuts, spin takes over
Scorchers’ finals hopes received a blow after Jhye Richardson’s latest injury setback ended his BBL season.
He had a tough BBL initiation, entering the attack in the third over against Konstas and Warner. Beardman hopes to one day emulate Morris and bowl 150 kph, but he can already produce significant pace around 140 kph.
Beardman was under siege against a rampaging Konstas, his Australia Under-19 teammate, who used his feet superbly to whack a slower delivery down the ground for six.
Connolly, whose bowling is slowly progressing, was extremely accurate and clean-bowled Sam Billings to finish with 1 for 16 off 4 overs. It was a tonic after Connolly was not not named in Australia’s Champions Trophy squad.
Morris recovered from a tardy start to claim three wickets with fiery bowling touching near 150 kph. But Turner was left to rue not bowling out Spoors, who still had two overs left, with Morris and Behrendorff smashed at the death.
Sangha returns in favourable conditions
Green claimed a couple of late wickets to finish with 3-13 off 4 overs, while Andrews capped a fine all-round match with the wicket of Nick Hobson.
Hardie’s struggles continue
Allrounder Hardie started the day with good news after he was selected for Australia’s Champions Trophy squad despite a modest BBL season playing as a specialist batter.
He came to the crease in the second over following the wicket of Finn Allen. Disaster struck when Fanning was run out at the non-striker’s end after Hardie had initially called for a single before changing his mind.
The run-out seemed to rattle Hardie, who was edgy at the crease before smashing consecutive sixes on the leg side off quick Nathan McAndrew. But he was soon bowled for 22 – which was Scorchers’ top score – to trigger a collapse.
Scorchers’ disastrous performance was summed up by Connolly, their leading batter this season, being run out attempting a second run after a direct throw from Hugh Weibgen at midwicket.
Turner, who has rescued his team many times before, holed out tamely as Scorchers appear almost certain to miss finals for just the third time in BBL history.
Tristan Lavalette is a journalist based in Perth
