A thrilling finale to the Big Bash League saw Michael Carberry at the crease as his Perth Scorchers defended the title via victory over Sydney Sixers in Canberra.
With the Scorchers needing eight to win from the last over, Carberry boldly scooped Brett Lee, playing the final game of his career, for four from the first delivery.
Carberry took three runs from the next two balls to level the scores, only for Lee to dramatically strike twice in the next two.
Yasir Arafat, who will be Carberry’s Hampshire team-mate this season, scrambled an on-side single with Carberry from the last delivery, although Arafat would have been run out but for Sydney skipper Moises Henriques’ fumble at the non-striker’s stumps.
Carberry said: “This game never ceases to amaze me. What a finish.
“Bing (Lee) was right on the money there. (It) could have gone either way, but (I’m) glad we got over the line.”
Well done Michael Carberry & Yasir Arafat on winning #BBL04. Commiserations to Brett Lee in last game. #BigFinalpic.twitter.com/cmW6vLahGv
— NatWest T20 Blast (@NatWestT20Blast) January 28, 2015
On his audacious boundary with six balls to go, Carberry added: “He (Lee) was getting the yorkers in pretty good and there’s quite long boundaries here, straight, so putting him back over his head was going to be tough.
“With fine-leg up, it was the only way to try and get the ball away. Luckily I got it out the middle of the bat and four.”
Carberry, who was unbeaten on 10 in his side’s 148 for six, became the first Englishman on the winning team in a Big Bash final since the league was rebranded to city-based franchises four years ago.
He denied Michael Lumb that honour. Lumb, like Nottinghamshire team-mate Riki Wessels, made little impact at the top of the order today despite impressing with the bat in the tournament.
The sole Perth player to score more runs than Carberry, thrice a half-centurion, was Michael Klinger, who captained Gloucestershire last year and is set to return to the county this summer.
Klinger’s 33 runs today made him the competition’s top scorer, his tally of 326 being 33 more than second-placed Kevin Pietersen of semi-finalists Melbourne Stars.
On a slow Manuka Oval pitch today the Sixers, despite winning the toss, did well to recover from 49 for four to post 147 for five thanks to a 98-run stand between Henriques and Ryan Carters.
Lumb and Wessels were bowled in the early overs, the former playing round a Nathan Coulter-Nile ball and the latter missing with a wild swing against Jason Behrendorff.
Arafat, who will represent Hampshire in limited-overs cricket next season, was next to strike, as Nic Maddinson was the third player to be cleaned up going for a big hit.
Veteran leg-spinner Brad Hogg, 44 next week, bowled Jordan Silk in the next over, leaving the Sixers in trouble at 49 for four in the tenth.
With light rain falling but play continuing, Henriques and Carters rebuilt initially via sensible strike rotation.
Following five overs without a boundary, the fifth-wicket pair upped the ante with a flurry of fours followed by two Henriques sixes, the only two of the innings.
The captain was run out for 77 from the last ball of the innings, going for an ambitious second run, to leave Carters unbeaten on 35.
Shaun Marsh, opening alongside Klinger in the reply, overcame a slow Scorchers start with 16 runs from the fifth over, bowled by Nathan Lyon.
The first-wicket pair put on 70 in 11.3 overs before Klinger holed out to deep midwicket for 33 off Lee, who took 3-25.
Adam Voges, captain of the Scorchers and Middlesex, chipped in with 20 until Doug Bollinger had him caught behind.
With 17 required from the last two overs, Lyon broke through twice in three balls in the same fashion Klinger had gone.
Man-of-the-match Marsh smashed three sixes and as many fours in his 73 but Ashton Turner went first delivery.
Lee’s last-over victims were Coulter-Nile and Sam Whiteman, both bowled. Arafat then played his only ball to midwicket, whose decent relay could not be gathered by Henriques with Lee standing by.