Scorchers Beat Heat To Win Fifth Big Bash League Title

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Teenager Cooper Connolly’s big hitting at the death and skipper Ashton Turner’s heroic 53 saw Perth Scorchers beat Brisbane Heat to win an unprecedented fifth Twenty20 Big Bash League title on Saturday.

Their fireworks propelled the defending champions to 178-5 and a nail-biting five-wicket win with four balls left in front of a record 53,886 parochial fans at Perth Stadium after Brisbane put on 175-7.

It was a successful title defence by a side who beat the Sydney Sixers in last season’s decider, with Saturday’s win securing a fifth trophy in only the competition’s 12th year.

A win looked highly unlikely when Turner was run out with 39 needed off 19 balls.

But young gun Connolly smashed 25 off 11 balls to turn the game on its head.

He crunched 18 of those from a James Bazley over leaving Perth needing 20 off the final 12 balls.

Nick Hobson then smashed a huge six followed by a no-ball five in the last over to secure the victory.

The clash culminated a season marked by thrilling finishes, controversial moments, big crowds and outstanding individual performances,

Perth earned home-ground advantage after finishing on top of the regular season table, then knocking off the Sixers in a qualifying match last weekend.

The Heat only finished fifth and had to come through three knockout games, all away from home, to reach the final.

Both teams were depleted with the Heat’s Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Matt Renshaw and Mitchell Swepson all departing earlier this week for Australia’s tour of India.

The Scorchers were without fast bowler Lance Morris and teammate Ashton Agar who are also preparing for the four-Test Border-Gavaskar series starting on Thursday in Nagpur.

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The Barron’s news department was not involved in the creation of the content above. This story was produced by AFP. For more information go to AFP.com.© Agence France-Presse