A poor start, a poor finish
Death batting let us down, Wade admits
HOBART’S horror start with the bat was telling, but it was an inability to fire at the death that was just as costly in the Big Bash semi-final loss, according to Matthew Wade.
The Hurricanes skipper was one of Daniel Worrall’s two first-over victims as the hosts sank to 2-5 early at Blundstone Arena on Thursday, while D’Arcy Short’s dismissal in the last over of the powerplay saw the score 3-42 after six.
A 75-run partnership between George Bailey (37) and Ben McDermott (53) put the Canes in a position to launch in the final few overs, but when they fell in the 16th and 18th overs respectively it stunted all the momentum the side was building.
The 7-153 against a talentladen Melbourne Stars lineup always appeared under par on one of the highest-scoring grounds in the country and Wade said only one of Bailey or McDermott needed to see the innings through to push the total to the desired 170.
“That’s one of our KPIs, get a batter in in the last few overs and that batter needs to be 50, 60-plus,” Wade said after his side became the sixth minor premier in eight Big Bashes to crash in the semis.
“It can be the first six but they are allowed to bowl well, and I thought they did that tonight. We have a structure and I said before if we stick to the way we want to play, when we lost early wickets that’s the way we play.
“We bank on ourselves to get 100 off the last 10 with wickets in hand. To be fair they bowled really well at the end, Worrall bowled well, [Dwayne] Bravo came back and did his job as well. We might have been 3-70 at that stage and we thought last 10, if we can get 170 then we are in the game.
“They executed better than we did.”
The defeat was a disappointing way for the Canes’ campaign to come to an end after they had been the best side all tournament following a blistering 9-1 start. It also added more fuel to the controversial finals set-up, which fails to reward the top two teams with a double chance.
However Wade refused to buy into the finals structure, noting it was Hobart that inflicted the same damage on last year’s minor premiers.
“We know coming into the BBL that’s the way it goes, you finish in the top four and you are a chance to get knocked out if you don’t play the right game at the right time. I don’t think you feel any pressure, BBL has been going so long we know that’s the finals system. We were on the other end of it last year, we went over to Perth and did the same thing.
“It is what it is, it is what we have at the moment, the shoe can be on the other foot. You have to play the right cricket at the right time and we didn’t.”
Compounding the defeat was a serious injury to George Bailey, who dislocated his right shoulder diving to stop a boundary. Scans in the coming days will determine the extent of the damage, but the second half of the Sheffield Shield season, and potentially his career, could be in serious doubt.