Chris Jordan smashed the fourth-fastest BBL fifty, but Hobart Hurricanes were left to rue a top-order collapse
Tristan Lavalette20-Dec-2023
Chris Jordan smashed the joint fourth fastest BBL half-century but Hobart Hurricanes rued a top-order collapse, as Aaron Hardie and Zak Crawley relished a batting-friendly Optus Stadium surface to power Perth Scorchers to a crushing victory.In Scorchers’ home opener, Hardie and Crawley combined for a commanding 157-run partnership off 84 balls to make light work of the chase.After crashing to 47 for 5, Hurricanes posted a seemingly competitive total through Jordan’s whirlwind 59 off 20 balls at the death. But Jordan’s clean striking foreshadowed what was ahead in perfect batting conditions.Scorchers lost Cooper Connolly, a hero in last season’s final against Brisbane Heat, to Jordan in the third over before Crawley and Hardie overwhelmed a Hurricanes attack clearly missing injured spearhead Riley Meredith.In his Scorchers debut, Crawley enjoyed the hard and bouncy pitch as he unleashed a slew of dismissive drives to the boundary. Playing against the team he represented in eight matches last season, Crawley finished unbeaten on 65 from 46 balls.He survived a nervous moment on 36 when he was adjudged caught behind off left-arm spinner Paddy Dooley, but Crawley successfully reviewed. Crawley raced to his half-century off 34 balls before being overhauled by Hardie who smashed four sixes off Dooley in the 13th over.Hardie, who has represented Australia recently in T20is and ODIs, was in awesome form and finished on 86 from 45 balls to underline why he is rated as a star of the future.But Scorchers will be sweating on the fitness of skipper Ashton Turner, who aggravated a right knee injury that sidelined him from the Sheffield Shield last month. The day after being nabbed by Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL auction, Turner limped off after bowling his first delivery.Hurricanes elected to bat in temperatures 37 degrees at the start of play. The pitch appeared much more enticing than the adjacent surface used during the recent Perth Test match between Australia and Pakistan.But Hurricanes’ top-order fared little better than Pakistan’s hapless line-up as their strategy in the powerplay to hit hard backfired against Scorchers’ star-studded attack. Having led Scorchers’ rout of Melbourne Stars for 101 at the MCG, in-form quick Jason Behrendorff tore apart a Hurricanes’ team that struggled to come to grips with the steep bounce.Hurricanes’ were seemingly left rattled after having to change their batting order with veteran opener Matthew Wade ruled out of the contest with a back injury. A lot of burden fell on Calen Jewell and his new opening partner Ben McDermott, who shuffled up a spot.McDermott came into the season on the back of an impressive T20I series in India after a late call-up. He started promisingly with a boundary off Behrendorff, but was undone by extra bounce on the next delivery to be caught at third man.Behrendorff was then on a hat-trick when he had Sam Hain trapped plumb lbw leaving an elevated Tim David coming in unusually early in the second over. David, whose speciality is finishing an innings, looked at sea in his return to his home town of Perth and fell to a short delivery from Behrendorff.Having watched the carnage from the other end, Jewell was confronted with fronting up to pumped up speedster Lance Morris making his BBL season debut after being part of Australia’s first Test squad.The pair renewed hostilities with Morris in October having had Jewell caught in the slips for a golden duck with his first ball of the Sheffield Shield season. Eerily similar, Morris had Jewell dismissed in an almost identical fashion on his first ball of the BBL season.Hurricanes slumped further when Corey Anderson fell to a slower paced short delivery from veteran seamer Andrew Tye as the ground’s lowest BBL score of 79 seemed in danger.But debutant Nikhil Chaudhary led a recovery by counterattacking in a controlled manner. A former Under-19 player for India, Chaudhary’s domination of T20 domestic cricket in Queensland in recent seasons earned him a BBL lifeline and it might prove an inspired selection.Chaudhary unfurled powerful batting and pounced on loose deliveries from Morris, while using his feet deftly to returning left-arm spinner Ashton Agar in his return from a calf injury that ruled him out of the World Cup.Chaudhary was racing towards his half-century before on 40 chopping on to Behrendorff. But Hurricanes absolutely dominated the backend through Jordan, who produced belligerent batting to hit the fastest BBL half-century at Optus Stadium.His aerial assault did the improbable and made Scorchers’ normally miserly attack look sluggish, particularly Richardson who finished with 0-42 from four overs having just been purchased by Delhi Capitals.Hurricanes’ smashed 64 runs off the last four overs, but it was not enough as Crawley and Hardie took over leading to familiar jubilation among the 30,000-plus fans in the terraces.
