THE Sydney Sixers have booked their spot in the KFC T20 Big Bash League final and the Champions League T20 after a six-run win against the Hobart Hurricanes yesterday. Batting first, the Sixers posted 6-153 from their 20 overs thanks to the efforts of Nic Maddinson (68) and Stephen O’Keefe (30).
The record crowd of 14,185 at Blundstone Arena would have been happy with Sydney’s total that was considered below-par, but the cheap dismissals of Hobart danger-men Travis Birt (11) and Owais Shah (0) swung the game in Sydney’s favour.
And despite the performance of Phil Jaques (63), Hobart were restricted to 7-146 as they fell just short.
Chasing a gettable total, Hobart made a cautious start as they attempted to keep wickets in hand.
Jonathan Wells (10) fell in the third over when he cut a Brett Lee (2-22 from four overs) slower ball straight to Steven Smith but Birt – the competition’s leading run-scorer – strode to the wicket in the form of his life.
Birt’s slow approach was unusual given his form so far in the tournament but he continued to look for singles, with Hobart’s 1-36 from their six over batting powerplay mirroring that of their opponents.
At 1-50 in the ninth over, Hobart were still in control until veteran Stuart MacGill (1-36 off four) changed the course of the game when he lured Birt down the crease, leading to his stumping for 11.
Englishman Shah begun the game as the third highest run-scorer in the KFC T20 Big Bash League but he lasted just three balls, with New Zealand’s Nathan McCullum (1-18 off three) taking the all-important wicket that saw Hobart’s two best batsmen dismissed in just five deliveries.
Jaques continued to find the boundary with a series of placed shots and his reverse sweep yielded him plenty of success, particularly off MacGill, but he kept running out of partners as Tom Triffitt (16), Matt Johnston (6), Jason Krejza (2) all were removed cheaply.
Jaques then fell when he played and missed a reverse sweep off the bowling of Steven Smith (2-22 off two) and although Rana kept Hobart’s hopes flickering with a series of late boundaries, he was left with too much to do.
Earlier, Sydney made the worst possible start to their run-chase as Hobart captain Xavier Doherty (1-20 from three) produced a wicket-maiden, highlighted by his sharp catch off his own bowling to remove Moises Henriques for a duck.
Maddinson and O’Keefe (30) steadied the ship before lifting the run-rate, with three boundaries from O’Keefe in six balls lifting the Sixers’ score to 1-36 at the end of the six-over batting powerplay.
O’Keefe’s promising cameo came to an end when he spooned a reverse sweep to Shah at short fine leg off the bowling of Krejza and although Maddinson and Smith added 41 in just over four overs, the latter played on when he had just got going.
At 4-128 from 16 overs, Sydney were eyeing off a score of around 170 but two wickets in as many balls robbed them of their momentum, with Maddinson the first to fall when Johnston took a smart catch off a low Ben Laughlin (2-25 from four) full toss.
Ben Rohrer (16) was run-out from the next ball in bizarre circumstances, with the batsman making it three-quarters of the way down the wicket only to be sent back by Dominic Thornely.
Doherty initially misfielded before producing a wild lob that left Hobart wicketkeeper Triffitt with a stack to do.
He did it though, and in style, as he acrobatically leapt to take the catch, ran towards the stumps and then threw them down to send Rohrer – who looked dangerous – packing.
Peter Nevill (14) was clean bowled by the competition’s leading wicket-taker, Rana (1-29 from four), in the final over as the Sixers chased late runs, but their total of 153 proved good enough for victory.
Sydney will now play the Perth Scorchers at the WACA in Saturday’s KFC T20 Big Bash League final. (CA).