Brisbane Heat won their second men’s Big Bash League title, and first for 11 years, as they swept aside Sydney Sixers in Wednesday’s final at the Sydney Cricket Ground, winning by 54 runs.
Brisbane, who topped the table in the group stage with seven wins from 10, were dominant almost from ball one after being put into bat by the Sixers.
Opener Jimmy Peirson was dismissed fourth ball by the impressive Sean Abbott (4-32), but Josh Brown then cracked 53 from 39 deliveries, dominating an 85-run stand with skipper Nathan McSweeney (33 off 33 balls).
The pair departed within the space of three deliveries spanning the 12th and 13th overs of the innings, but Matt Renshaw (40 off 22) and Max Bryant (29 off 19) provided a further spark to fire the Heat up to a score of 166-8, with Renshaw run out off the final ball of their 20-over allocation.
Michael Neser (1-15) then struck with the third ball of the Sixers’ reply, while Spencer Johnson ripped out Jack Edwards (16 off 10) and Josh Philippe (23 off 22) on his way to stunning figures of 4-26.
Mitchell Swepson (2-19) too impressed, the leg-spinner picking up Jordan Silk for a duck with a superb delivery that had the batter stumped after fine work with the gloves too from Peirson.
Struggling, still close to 100 runs shy of their target at 70-4 in the 12th over, Sydney’s title bid was well and truly derailed when captain Moises Henriques (25 off 27), Ben Dwarshuis (0), Joel Davies (15) and Hayden Kerr (6) departed in consecutive overs.
Xavier Bartlett (2-12) latterly blew away the tail, seeing off Sean Abbott (16 off 11) and Steve O’Keefe with back-to-back balls to bowl the Sixers out for 112 and wrap up a convincing win with 15 balls to spare – clinching their second men’s title.
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Source : Sky Sports
