Adelaide Strikers wins a thriller against Perth Scorchers by 1 wicket in the BBL today. The defending champions won the toss and went out to bat first. The openers Michael Carberry and Marcus Harris gave a nice start to Scorchers. After losing Harris, Michael Klinger came to crease for Perth and played his part very well. Unfortunately, Klinger missed out on his half century falling just one run short. However, they manages to put out a modest total of 146 at the loss of 7 wickets. Kane Richardson turned out to be the star bowler from Strikers taking 3 wickets and conceding only 31 runs in his four overs.
The Strikers innings started slowly as a of the openers Craig Simmons fell scoring only 12. Few overs later Tim Ludeman also fell victim of Behrendorff. Although the Strikers were scoring with the required run rate, the turning point of the match came around when both Kieron Pollard and Johan Botha were bowled by Behrendorff in a single over turning the match around. Anyhow, Brad Hodge remained solid on the crease while at the other end wickets kept falling in heaps.
In the second last over, when only 15 were required, Adam Zampa gloved a ball to keeper. But, the umpire didn’t think it was a wicket. In the last over 8 runs were needed and Strikers had two wickets in hand. Arafat superbly bowled the first 3 balls in which Richardson was ran out while he was trying to sneak in a bye. Now, 7 runs were needed of 3 balls and only one wicket was remaining. This time Arafat missed his length and gave juicy full volley. Zampa slogged it over mid wicket for six. Zampa’s six made the scores level. Then Arafat’s no ball sealed the match for the Adelaide Strikers. Jason Behrendorff was given man of the match for his outstanding bowling performance of 4/22.
