So the Heat are teetering on the edge of elimination from playoff contention. They have two games remaining and one of them is against the last place and already eliminated Renegades. If they can claim full points there, they'll be in with a remote chance of making the playoffs taking on the red hot Scorchers in their season finale. The Strikers play back-to-back games against the Sydney Thunder and will have a handy home field advantage in both. A sweep of those and they're guaranteed to be in the playoffs. That's all from us today. Come back tomorrow for a BBL doubleheader. Take care!
Alex Carey is Player of the Match: "Very happy with the result. We knew it was a big game and every game down the stretch is a big game. Hopefully we can get some momentum going into the last few games. Jake again tonight was outstanding at the top. We went back to that [combo] and it worked out. It's great to have [Neser] as well. It's good to have him in the group and he's a great fielder so no surprise what he did there. Heady has done such a great job with this BBL team so it was nice to just go out there and take the gloves. It was a really good opportunity to go to the IPL in the first place so we'll see if I can get back there."
9.50 pm An absolute thumping from the Strikers. Heat's playoff chances have effectively been dashed. Meanwhile the Strikers not only collect full points to move up into a tie for second on 24 points with the Stars and Scorchers, but get a desperately needed boost to their net run rate when tournament tiebreak calculations come into play.
MJ Swepson c Neser b Siddle 4 (6b 0x4 0x6) SR: 66.66
Witness: "Bryant out for 25 - was that really worth it? Should've just kept Morne " He's second high score in this innings. Where was the rest of the batting? If they keep Morkel in, they hold them to 185 or 190 instead of 197. They'd lose the game by 50 runs instead of 70. The top and middle order lost the game for the Heat, not the Morkel for Bryant swap.
END OF OVER:17 | 9 Runs 1 Wkt | BH: 114/9 (84 runs required from 18 balls, RR: 6.70, RRR: 28.00)
- Mitchell Swepson4 (5b)
- Wes Agar4-0-27-4
- Danny Briggs4-0-28-1
M Bryant c Salt b Agar 25 (16b 0x4 2x6) SR: 156.25