Hobart Hurricanes vs Sydney Sixers –
For the third consecutive day in the Big Bash League, the captain winning the toss committed a mistake by asking the opposition to bat first.
The openers of the team batting first were quick and provided a great start to the team. Today, it was the pair of Tim Paine and D’Arcy Short who fired shots right from the start of the innings. Short was the dominant force at the start as Hurricanes lost their first wicket with a score of 81 and it was Short who had a long walk back to the pavilion but on a score of 61, off just 29 balls. He batted at a strike rate of 210.34.
Meanwhile, skipper Tim Paine then imitated his opening partner and played an innings of 63 before getting out on a score of 120 on the board.
Despite the succeeding batsman not being able to score substantial runs, Hurricanes notched up to score of 200 in 20 allotted overs.
Sydney Sixers started off well but soon their innings was derailed by Clive Rose, who scalped two wickets in the fourth over of the game, to provide a jittery start to Sixers. This blow was enough to pour water on hopes of Sixers. Regular wickets and a miser bowling performance from Hurricanes bowlers added to it and Sixers found themselves 60 runs short in the end.
D’Archy Short was awarded Man of the Match award for his blistering innings of 61 runs off just 29 balls.
Perth Scorchers vs Adelaide Strikers
Perth Scorchers ride on a team performance to seal a huge win over Adelaide Strikers by a margin of 48 runs. Despite a poor start, Perth Scorchers was able to put 86 runs on the board in the first 10 overs of the game and then came the moment when Scorchers went for big runs and congregated 111 runs in the last 10 overs of the innings to put up 197 runs on the board.
Ian Bell, coming in at number three, scored 61 runs to hold the innings whereas Ashton Turner, fired 44 runs in just 19 balls in the later part of the innings to stretch the total to heights unsurpassable for Strikers.
Adelaide Strikers were on the back foot from the first over itself as David Willey affected a wicket in the first over of the game. He followed with another wicket in his very next over. He was well supported by other bowlers as Jhye Richardson and Mitchell Johnson too followed with quick wickets to keep Strikers at bay.
Brad Hodge, the Strikers batsmen tried his level best with innings of 56 but his team fell short by a margin of 48 runs, registering their second consecutive loss in the league.