BBL 15: Tim Paine's innings helps Hurricanes beat Brisbane Heat
Hobart Hurricanes welcomed Brisbane Heat to the Bellerive Oval in the seventh match of the Big Bash League. Hurricanes’ captain Tim Paine scored a quickfire 87 runs which helped his team overpower the team from Brisbane by 20 runs.
The Hurricanes won the toss and elected to have a go with the bat first and riding on Tim Paine’s swashbuckling innings of a 58-ball 87 posted a total of 184 runs. The innings did not start particularly well for them as Peter Forrest caught Ben Dunk short of the crease in the third over of the innings with 22 runs on the board.
Sri Lankan talisman Kumar Sangakkara then walked out to steady the ship for Hurricanes as he added 77 runs with Paine in 51 balls. Sangakkara fell to Ben Cutting in the 12th over and the next batsman to walk out was George Bailey.
The Australian took the attack to the Heat from the word go as he scored a quickfire 40 runs in 21 balls and lost his wicket in the penultimate over of the innings. Paine, however, was not done yet as he went on to add 13 runs each in the last two overs to power Hurricanes to a commendable total.
Jimmy Peirson started well for the Brisbane Heat as he smashed 29 runs in 19 balls but fell to Rainbird in the fifth over. Lendl Simmons did not do well as he amassed just 16 runs and took 17 balls for it, which is too slow an innings if your team is supposed to score runs in an excess of six an over.
Peter Forrest and Chris Lynn followed the West Indian soon after as the Heat were down to 76 for the loss of four wickets. However, Jason Floros continued scoring runs at a fast pace from his end and lost his wicket on the last ball of 14th over after scoring 42 runs with a strike rate of 182.60.
Brisbane still needed another 72 runs in the remaining six overs when Floros departed, and Nathan Reardon had to up the ante to take his team as near to the Hurricanes’ total as possible with Cutting at the other end. However, Cutting was not able to help his partner for long as he became Rainbird’s third casualty in the match.
Reardon lost his wicket in the penultimate over to Shaun Tait which almost ended the hopes of the team from Brisbane to win the match. The pair of James Hopes and Josh Lalor needed 28 runs off the last over but managed only seven runs with Hopes losing his wicket on the last ball, as they lost the match by 20 runs in the end.
Notably, Dan Christian took four high-rise catches in the match while fielding deep into the field.
Scorecard: Hobart Hurricanes won the toss and chose to bat.
Hobart Hurricanes: 184/3, Overs 20.0
| B Dunk | 5 (7) |
| T Paine | 87* (58) |
| K Sangakkara | 43 (31) |
| G Bailey | 40 (21) |
| D Christian | 5* (4) |
| Total | 184/3 |
Bowling:
| Bowler | Overs | Runs | Wickets |
| J Lalor | 4 | 32 | 0 |
| J Floros | 2 | 12 | 0 |
| S Badree | 4 | 37 | 0 |
| A Fekete | 3 | 32 | 1 |
| J Hopes | 3 | 37 | 0 |
| B Cutting | 4 | 32 | 1 |
Brisbane Heat: 164/8, Overs 20.0
| J Peirson | 29 (19) |
| L Simmons | 16 (17) |
| J Floros | 42 (23) |
| P Forrest | 2 (5) |
| C Lynn | 1 (3) |
| N Reardon | 41 (32) |
| B Cutting | 10 (10) |
| J Hopes | 13 (10) |
| J Lalor | 1* (1) |
| Total | 184/3 |
Bowling:
| Bowler | Overs | Runs | Wickets |
| S Tait | 4 | 25 | 1 |
| S Rainbird | 4 | 37 | 3 |
| C Rose | 4 | 33 | 1 |
| D Christian | 4 | 22 | 2 |
| C Boyce | 3 | 31 | 1 |
| D Sammy | 1 | 10 | 0 |
Hobart Hurricanes beat Brisbane Heat by 20 runs.
Man of the match: Tim Paine