BBL 2016-17 semi-final 1 Review: Perth Scorchers set to make 5th final appearance

The sizzling Big Bash League has reached the business end of the tournament and only teams are in contention for the title now. Among those were the Perth Scorchers and Melbourne Stars. Playing at their home ground the furnace in Perth the Scorchers made little work of the match and skied over the target with utmost comfort and grace.

Skipper Adam Voges won the toss and decided to unleash Mitchell Johnson onto the Stars first up. The former Australian pacer put up a show for one and all to watch in disbelief. Having retired a couple of years ago he still has fire in his belly and his bowling. The very first ball that he bowled in the game was though not the best deliveries but got him the result he would have wanted.

On a delivery pitched on the leg stump and going down for a wide Rob Quiney decided to play at it and hit a full shot only to hit it straight to Jhye Richardson at the fine leg fence. Things got worse for Stars when three balls later their English recruit Luke Wright tried to cut a short of the length delivery from Johnson and Ashton Turner at gully took a good low catch. In the very first over Stars were two down and had nothing in their account.

Then next couple of overs yielded them 21 runs with Kevin Pietersen and Seb Gotch at the crease. Johnson returned to bowl the second over of his spell and on the very first ball got the big wicket of Pietersen caught by Michael Klinger. By then he had bowled 7 deliveries not given away a single run and put three bullets in the Melbourne team’s chest. He finished his second over a maiden as well. It took the batting team 18 deliveries to score first runs off the left-arm pacer. Johnson finished his 4 overs with three wickets and allowed the batsmen only 3 runs.

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A start like that and seldom do teams recover. Stars never did and despite 48 from Gotch and 26 from skipper David Hussey managed just 136 in their quota against 8 wickets. In a high-pressure game, a mediocre total can be tricky but the Scorchers have been in this position all times in the history of the BBL. This was their sixth semi-final appearance in the sixth edition of the tournament and they were too good to be challenged by that total.

Though Daniel Worrall gave his team some hopes with an early wicket of Klinger in the second over for 7 but the other opener Sam Whiteman and No.3 Shaun Marsh smashed them for 64 runs in 8.3 overs before Whiteman was eventually dismissed for 31. Skipper Voges continued his pale run in the tournament and fell to Evan Gulbis in his only over for 13.

Two of their most experienced batsmen Marsh and Ian Bell were in the middle now and in no mood to extend the chase any longer. While Marsh scored a pretty half century and remained unbeaten on 56 from 44 balls aided by eight boundaries Bell took just 15 balls for his 26 striking a couple of fours and a six and finished the game stroking the 5th ball of the 17th over from Michael Beer beyond the ropes.

The moment Mitchell Johnson bowled that over, the match was almost done for the Stars and they never recovered from it. A lethal fast bowler is always an asset irrespective of the format – point well proved Mitch. He was awarded the Man of the Match for his excellent spell.

Watch: Perth Scorchers pacer Mitchell Johnson picks 3/3

Brief Scores:

Melbourne Stars: 136/8 in 20 overs (SE Gotch 48; M Johnson 3/3)

Perth Scorchers: 139/3 in 16.5 overs (S Marsh 56; EP Gulbis 1/9)