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Perth Scorchers 3 for 92 (Bosisto 36*, Turner 24) beat Adelaide Strikers 88 (Richardson 3-7, Tye 2-9, Behrendorff 2-16) by seven wickets
Throughout their history as the BBL’s most successful side, the Perth Scorchers have beaten teams by outbowling them, with a potent ally in the WACA’s pace and bounce. Playing only their second match at their new home, the Perth Stadium, they followed the same template to bring up their first win of BBL 08.
On a spicy deck that gave Boxing Day an extra layer of meaning, the Scorchers’ fast bowlers outpunched their Adelaide Strikers counterparts, and the result was a seven-wicket win, with Jason Behrendorff and Jhye Richardson playing starring roles.
Behrendorff and Richardson took five of the first seven wickets as the Strikers crumbled to 88 all out, after the Scorchers won what turned out to be an important toss. The smallness of the target allowed the Scorchers to see off their two biggest threats, Billy Stanlake and Rashid Khan, without taking too many risks, and a 57-run third-wicket stand between William Bosisto and Ashton Turner took the home side to the doorstep of victory.
Pace like fire
The surface Perth rolled out for last week’s Australia-India Test was perhaps unlucky to end up with an “average” rating from the match referee, given the enthralling cricket it produced. It’s less debatable, however, that the same sort of surface isn’t ideal for T20. Generous quantities of pace, bounce and seam movement were available, and these three quantities led to the frequent, and stereotypically Australian, sight of the keeper collecting the still-rising ball at shoulder height.
To exploit these conditions the Scorchers had five quicks in Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, David Willey, Richardson and AJ Tye, and their two spin-bowling Ashtons, Agar and Turner, weren’t required at all.
More to follow…
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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