With the Melbourne Renegades defeating the Brisbane Heat, the group stage of the ongoing Big Bash League has finally concluded. The loss rules Heat out of contention for winning the tournament. Sydney Thunder narrowly pipped them for the last play-offs berth, finishing fifth on the table. All through this week; Hobart, Melbourne Stars, Adelaide, and both the teams from Sydney will lock-horns to clinch the coveted Big Bash trophy.
Despite losing the match, the Heat did supply their fans with several memorable moments, albeit in a losing cause. Heat pacer James Pattinson produced a moment that would feature well on the Heat’s season highlights list. A lot of coverage has been already done over the fabulous fielding-quality the players have shown all-through the tournament. Following the trend, Pattinson did come up with a sublime fielding effort…although not in the ways one would expect.
The incident happened in the game’s first innings when the heat were batting. Their batsman, Matt Renshaw, was shouldering the burden of guiding the team to a competitive total. During the process, in the 17th over of the innings, the left-handed Renshaw clobbered leg-spinner Cameron Boyce’s fullish delivery towards deep mid-wicket. Pattinson, who was waiting in the dugout, all padded-up to come out and bat, took a stunning-catch to collect his teammates’ six. The batting gloves he was wearing did help the ball to cling on to his hands, but it was a sensational effort nonetheless. His teammates and fans acknowledged the effort with a strong applause. Here’s the video of Pattinson’s off-field heroics.
James Pattinson taking crowd catches with his batting gloves on! Amazing!
A @KFCAustralia Bucket Moment | #BBL09 pic.twitter.com/FRZlFwn8FH
— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 27, 2020
Match Summary
The Heat would’ve liked many more of such impressive hits, but in total, they could only collect six-maximums, four of them coming off-Renshaw’s willow. Their usual big-hitters, Chris Lynn and AB de Villiers, looked out of touch today, and their failures impacted their batting unit’s performance. Renshaw had only Ben Cutting (27 off 11) and Marnus Labuschagne (28 off 26) for support all through his crucial 65-run innings. The host’s pacer, Will Sutherland further demolished their chances by picking-up 3 wickets.
Despite the poor batting show, the Heat tried to pull things back with a spirited bowling-exhibition. Their spinners Mujeeb Ur Rehman and Mitchell Swepson bowled economically to keep the hosts under the pump. Ultimately, though, Aaron Finch and Mohammad Nabi’s valuable experience helped the Renegades cross the line with 7-wickets left. Finch won Man of the Match for his match-winning innings of 63 off 49 (2x 4, 4x 6).
Play-offs Schedule
The BBL knockouts commence from this Thursday, with the eliminator featuring Hobart and Sydney Thunder. Melbourne and Sydney Sixers will play the qualifier the next day. Adelaide will play against the winner of the eliminator in the first knock-out match on Saturday, 1 February. The respective-winners will get their final chance in the Challenger-match next Thursday, before the all important Finals match concludes the month-and-a-half long tournament on Saturday, 8 February.
