Quantcast
Channel: ECB Latest News
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 7281

Carberry sends Scorchers into final

$
0
0

Michael Carberry crashed the only half-century of a low-scoring Big Bash League semi-final to help defending champions Perth Scorchers into Wednesday’s final.

The Scorchers will meet Sydney Sixers in the Canberra decider after Carberry’s third fifty in as many games at the WACA Ground proved invaluable in an 18-run win over Melbourne Stars.

Defeat for the Stars was their fourth successive last-four exit and signalled the end of the tournament for their English pair Kevin Pietersen andLuke Wright, who both top-scored with 31 for their beaten side.

Pietersen, the leading run-scorer in the tournament, refused to go meekly as he produced one of the shots of the Big Bash when he switch-hit veteran left-arm leg-spinner Brad Hogg for a monster six.

Chasing the Scorchers’ 144 for seven, a total that appeared below par, the onus was left on Pietersen as the home bowlers again showed their capacity to squeeze the opposition batsmen.

Pietersen broke the shackles momentarily with the most audacious of swipes at Hogg – the ball sailing 86 metres onto the eastern bank in front of the WACA’s old scoreboard – but when he and former Essex batsman Rob Quiney fell to the returning Nathan Coulter-Nile in the same over the Stars slipped to yet another last-four reverse.

The Stars lost their last nine wickets for 67 as AJ Tye, who had earlier played out a maiden to finish the Scorchers’ innings, finished with 4-18.

Carberry’s 50 from 36 balls was therefore vital in a win that ensured the Scorchers retained their record of having reached all four Big Bash finals.

The Hampshire left-hander had to ride his luck early when he was dropped at cover on nine after hitting back-to-back boundaries.

Michael Carberry pulls on his way to a vital third successive half-century for the Perth Scorchers at the WACA Ground

The 34-year-old, who has slowly established himself as a fan favourite in Perth, made the Stars pay as he clubbed six fours and a maximum off Leicestershire-bound Clint McKay, who would later deliver the rarest of final-over maidens.

Carberry and his Scorchers team-mates will now make the long journey across to the Australian capital to play a Sixers side that will feature Notts Outlaws duo Michael Lumband Riki Wessels.

Lumb and Wessels, who survived one hairy moment yesterday, helped the Sixers claim an upset win at Adelaide Strikers in the other semi-final on Saturday.

The Strikers had lost just once in the group stage but fell to an 87-run defeat.

Lumb and Wessels know what it is like to suffer home heartbreak in the knockout stages of the domestic Twenty20 competition, after losing at home in the quarter-finals for the past four years with Notts.

The latest of those defeats came at the hands of Hampshire, and Carberry, at Trent Bridge in August, and after travelling to the other side of the world to break their Twenty20 knockout-stage curse the Outlaws duo will now have Carberry in their sights in Canberra.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 7281

Trending Articles