FULL SPEED

Semi’s locked in, now Canes chase Thunder win

TOP spot on the BBL ladder and a home semi-final are already secured, but the Hurricanes have no plans to take the foot off the gas against the Sydney Thunder tonight.

Hobart sewed up the minor premiership with a game in hand by defeating the Melbourne Renegades on Thursday night, and have a quick back-up on the road in Can- berra to round out their homeand-away fixture.

After setting the tournament up with a blistering 9-1 start, the tournament favourites have hit a few roadblocks in the past fortnight, with Johan Botha’s shock retirement, illness to Riley Meredith and knee soreness sidelining James Faulkner.

And despite the showdown at Manuka Oval being a dead rubber for the visitors, middle- order slugger Ben McDermott declared carrying momentum into the finals remained the clear goal.

“We deserve it for sure, a home semi for Tassie. It is good to get the win and get a home semi,” McDermott said after the 16-run defeat of the Renegades. “It was nice to lock that away and now we go to Canberra and hopefully set up another stepping stone to winning a final.”

All three of Hobart’s losses this tournament have come when defending, and after Meredith’s wayward first over against Melbourne — which consisted of three no-balls and five wides — cost 23 runs, it looked like the side was again going to struggle despite having 183 runs on the board.

However Jofra Archer (2-19) was superb in restricting the run flow.

Then spinners D’Arcy Short (2-20) and debutant Qais Ahmad (2-34) dragged the hosts back into the contest.

“We know if we hit our KPIs we are going to win games, it doesn’t matter whether we bat or bowl first,” McDermott said.

“It is good to know we can do it, you know it is 50-50 with the toss so you could be doing whatever.

“It is nice to win and nice to defend a total with the ball.

“It’s the same KPIs, it doesn’t matter if we bowl or bat first, we are looking to do the same things every time we play.”

McDermott survived a nasty blow against the Renegades, where he deflected a full-toss in the final over from Harry Gurney into his throat attempting to ramp it over the keeper.

After receiving on-field treatment he finished off the innings — slapping the next delivery over mid-wicket for six — but said he might shelve the trick shots.

“I have ramped one into my face before but never my neck, it was a bit different,” he said.

“It was a full-toss so it didn’t take any force off, just skimmed and hit the neck.

“Scary at the time, I couldn’t breathe for a couple of seconds, but all good.

“It makes me think twice playing the shot again, I’ve tried to play it four times and haven’t got a result from it.

“I might put it [ramp shot] away for now.”