Hurricanes blow their best shot

I’M not sure that could have gone any worse. A loss is always hard to take, particularly in a final when you’ve finished on top of the table, but when it’s compounded by a major injury to one of your stalwarts and legends of the game, it’s impossible to digest.

This one would be like trying to eat a brick, without a splattering of mustard.

We can only hope that the injury to George Bailey’s shoulder is not as bad as first thought. The slow-motion replay looked awkward, but the true extent of the injury could be seen in George’s face. Sadly, it’s a series of telltale signs of severity that we’ve all seen before.

The game was a major disappointment for the Canes, and not just because of the ease with which the Stars dismantled them. Of all the seasons where success felt right for the Hurricanes, this was it. It just felt like their time.

The leadership addition of Botha, in my opinion, was bigger than any other signing in the history of the franchise. It filled perhaps their biggest hole. The continued success of Short; the brutality of an angry-point-to-prove-Wade; the emergence of Meredith; the stability of Bailey in the middle order; the Finisher was back doing his thing with bat and ball; Archer was his brilliant self, and the spread of performance when required from role players Milenko, Rose and Jewell was integral to them being matchwinners in their own right. All of it led to the hot start. But over their last six games, the Canes would win only two. And the fact that this took place on the back of the Botha retirement is more than a coincidence.

Faulkner’s complex knee injury meant that Riley Meredith would have to step into a leading role with the new ball, a role that saw him fail through a major technical hitch (rectified in the final with a straighter run-up and boy, wasn’t he impressive). Meredith’s previous role was filled by the wildly inconsistent David Moody, who too often showed immense promise and epic failings, sometimes all in the same over.

But it all comes back to Botha. Being able to bank four overs at less than seven runs per, plus all the leadership experience he offered, would become even more important to the team when the only other four overs you could take to the bank were gone too (Faulkner).

Replacing those eight overs with 10 runs per- and above was always going to be problematic, even for the best batting group in the competition.

But more importantly to the game itself, why did Clive Rose only bowl one over? With five frontline bowlers, who the skipper clearly identified as more likely to take wickets or restrict than Clive, why was the extra batter not selected? Does Tim Paine make a difference? The situation of the game suggests he may have, but you can’t predict the future. What you can do, though, is plan for it.

It’s why I don’t like six bowlers. It’s always seemed a wasted batting position unless one is viewed as a batting allrounder (Milenko). Pick your five best bowlers and load up with as many specialist batsmen as you can. T20 is a game of runs, and in this final, the Canes didn’t have enough.

So, here we are, again, with the best list in the comp falling over to leave us no closer to a premiership/championship or whatever Americanised term we use for ultimate success in this competition.

This will be the one that hurts the most. The Canes have ridden the wave for a few seasons now. They had a chance last year in an away final and got their home final run this season. Sadly, that gnarly roller won’t allow you to ride it forever.