Short and Lynn power Strikers to highest successful BBL chase

© Getty Images Matthew Short brought up his ton and helped Hurricanes complete the highest BBL chase © Getty Images

Adelaide Strikers 230 for 3 (McDermott 57, Jewell 54) beat Hobart Hurricanes 229 for 4 (Short 100*, Lynn 64, Dooley 2-25) by seven wickets

Matthew Short celebrated his captaincy debut with a heroic, maiden T20 ton to help Adelaide Strikers pull off the greatest run chase in BBL history.

After Hurricanes posted an imposing 229 for 4, Short crunched Pakistan allrounder Faheem Ashraf for back-to-back boundaries in the 20th over to raise his century and victory by seven wickets with three balls to spare.

With regular skipper Peter Siddle sidelined, Short celebrated his temporary elevation to the captaincy role by crunching 100 not out off 59 balls.

Scratchy early, Short received two lives off Riley Meredith’s bowling – dropped by Mitchell Owen first ball and a sitter by Nathan Ellis on 22 – and he made Hurricanes pay.

After the early departure of Ryan Gibson, Short and Chris Lynn, who made 64, added 124 off 58 balls for the second wicket to turn Strikers’ dream into a reality.

Lynn smashed four sixes in his whirlwind 29-ball knock before falling to the impressive spinner Patrick Dooley during the power surge.

On 20, English import Adam Hose holed out to Tim David at mid-on but was reprieved when third umpire Eloise Sheridan deemed Faheem’s full toss to be above waist height.

Hose duly belted the free hit for six, one of three he struck in Faheem’s over, which reaped 22. Hose eventually fell for 38 before an even higher high full toss from the struggling Faheem in the 20th over conceded another free hit, allowing Short to pounce.

Dooley suffered a nasty injury to his left shoulder while diving to save a boundary in the 19th over, compounding the pain for Hurricanes who looked in an impregnable position at the halfway mark.

Half-centuries to Ben McDermott (57), Caleb Jewell (54) and Zak Crawley (54*) underpinned Hurricanes’ record score.

They smoked 14 sixes in their innings and appeared on track to make it two wins over Strikers in five days, while consigning the home side to a fourth successive defeat before Short stole the show.