Scorchers beat Heat to win fifth Big Bash League title

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

Their fireworks propelled them to 178-5 and a nail-biting five-wicket win with four balls let in front of a record 53,886 parochial fans at Perth Stadium ater 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 fith trophy in only the competition’s 12th year.

“It’s a surreal feeling. I’ve played a lot of games of cricket but you never know how it will pan out,” said man-of-the-match Turner ater his 32-ball knock.

“We are in rarified air at the moment, we have a lot of guys in form and that’s not always the case. A lot of guys have contributed to wins throughout the season.”

A victory looked highly unlikely when Turner was run out ater a horror mix-up with Nick Hobson, leaving them needing 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 to leave them needing 20 off the final 12 balls.

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, outstanding individual performances, and more than one million fans through the turnstiles.

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

The Heat only finished fith 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, Mat 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.

In reply, Scorchers opener Stephen Eskinazi made a brisk 21 before a schoolboy run out, then Michael Neser clung on to a high catch to remove Cameron Bancrot for 15.