Perth Scorchers defeat Adelaide Strikers by 7 wickets to win their first game of the BBL season
Perth Scorchers defeated the Adelaide Strikers by 7 wickets in the last BBL encounter of the year. This was the Scorchers' first win of the season.
The Strikers had managed to win their last four encounters against the Scorchers. However, the Perth-based outfit showed their mettle today to remain in the hunt for a top-four spot in the BBL 2020-21 table.
The Strikers put up 146-9 in 20 overs, following which the Scorchers chased down 147 at the expense of just three wickets. The Strikers captain Alex Carey was the top scorer of the game as he amassed 82 runs off 59 balls, but his efforts went in vain.
Mitchell Marsh and Jason Roy guide the Scorchers to a victory
England international Jason Roy (49 off 32) gave the Scorchers a steady start. The Perth-based team managed to reach 48-0 in six overs. Roy's partner Liam Livingstone contributed only 7 of those runs as he played a subdued role.
Wes Agar picked up two wickets in the 8th over as he dismissed both the openers to give some hope to the Strikers.
T20 specialist Colin Munro (6) also perished soon as Rashid Khan trapped him lbw. From 57-0, the Scorchers went to 80-3.
But Josh Inglis (44 off 31) and Mitchell Marsh (38 off 24) showed their experience and batted sensibly. They didn't take too many undue risks and put the bad balls away. In the end, the Scorchers cruised to a comfortable win as they completed the chase with 14 balls to spare.
Alex Carey carries the Strikers' innings to 146
Earlier, Jhye Richardson and Aaron Hardie bowled tight opening spells as the Strikers batsmen failed to get off to a good start in this BBL clash. Both the openers, Jake Weatherald (6) and Phil Salt (4) were back in the pavilion early.
Matt Renshaw (19 off 17) and Alex Carey got a partnership going as they took the Strikers to 64 in 8 overs. Hardie broke their partnership as Jason Behrendorff caught Renshaw. After that, captain Carey failed to get any decent support from the other end as all the batsmen were dismissed for single-digit scores.
Carey almost single-handedly kept his side in the game as he batted with assurance and took some calculated risk from time to time. After 10 overs, the Strikers were 75-4.
Carey took the BBL Power Surge in the 18th over, and the two overs yielded 20 runs. The left-hander was dismissed in the 19th over, which helped the Scorchers restrict the total below 150. When Carey was dismissed, the score was 136-8.
As it turned out, the Strikers were let down by their batting department as the Scorchers registered a comfortable 7-wicket win in the latest BBL game.
Brief BBL score: Perth Scorchers 147-3 (Roy 49, Agar 2-43) defeated Adelaide Strikers 146-9 in 20 overs (Carey 82, Richardson 3-19) by 7 wickets.