The Heat went into the first match of the new BBL season as warm favourites (no pun intended) with their exciting batting and improved bowling stocks from last season. Their disappointing finish to last season when they looked a likely finalist would have been highly on their minds in the off season. Even though they were taking on the reigning champions, playing at home gave the Heat an advantage. But the destructive batting line self destructed instead, and handed the Strikers an impressive win.
As wonderful as it is to watch Brendan McCullum, Chris Lynn and Joe Burns smashing the ball out of the stadium, the fact that they go so hard without fear of failure generally brings about their downfall too easily and thus puts so much pressure on the other bats to do a job. Both McCullum and Lynn were gone before six overs had been bowled, and that leaves too much for the rest of the team to make up for. It’s spectacular when it comes off, but when it doesn’t like tonight it costs the Heat dearly. McCullum showed with the first ball that he can play perfectly crafted shots to the boundary. He showed second ball that he really doesn’t need to charge, especially against 150kph thunderbolts. Some thought needs to go into this if they want to avoid the disappointments of last season, and perhaps a more measured approach will produce better results.
The final wicket partnership between the hard nosed Jimmy Peirson (24 not out) and the 17 year old Mujeeb Ur Rahman (27) showed what can be done with some sensible stroke play with a record stand of 45 off 29 deliveries, and this at least gave the Heat a defendable target of 146. Rashid Khan once again was superb taking 3/20, but if my 11 year old son watching at home noticed that just about every ball he bowled was a wrong ‘un then surely professional cricketers should be working that out as well. No doubt the pace he bowls is a factor as well as not having time to settle in against him, but I’m sure other teams will play him better with this in mind.
What on earth was the third umpire thinking in regards to the run out call on James Pattinson? Though it was tight it looked to everyone that on the frame where the bails were taken that Pattinson’s bat was over the crease. Then when the out decision came on the scoreboard no one could believe it. It was obvious that no one on the field thought it was out, and the game stopped for a couple of minutes as confusion reigned. Eventually it was Strikers skipper Colin Ingram after an enquiry from Ben Laughlin who withdrew the appeal and allowed the game to proceed. But that’s a howler that was caused by the TV umpire and not solved by him. The excuse that the communications link between the 3rd umpire and the standing umpires went down is a little hard to swallow.
Jake Weatherald was dropped in the second over which may have changed the game a little, but Alex Carey was superb, striking the ball cleanly throughout his innings of 70 off 46 deliveries. James Pattinson (2/23) was excellent on his return, fast and straight, and Mitch Swepson (1/27) extremely unfortunate with his spell of leg spin bowling. In the end the total was proven to be 20-30 runs short as Jonathan Wells and Jake Lehmann cruised to victory with five deliveries remaining. It was a great night for the champions, while the home team has some things to think about.
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