BBL 100-1

[ddrap14]

Well, if this wasn't going to be 101 posts, I'd put it into the general thread. But it will be!

Ahead of this year's tournament, I'll be counting down the top 100 games in BBL history in my opinion. Player feats, drama, memorable moments and match impact will all have a role to play in the rankings. It's worth noting that I'm starting this a month earlier than I'd need to because I'll definitely miss many days - uni, work, and I'm also planning a trip in November.

#100 later today!

 

[ddrap14]

#100: The First Dance
BBL01, Game 1
Heat 8/139 (Christian 32, MacGill 2/21, Hazlewood 2/24) lose to Sixers 3/140 (Haddin 76*, Christian 1/20)

The buzz for the first game of the BBL was pretty high... for everyone but me, because it was pay TV exclusive and I didn't have that . And like the IPL, the first game was something of a blowout, but still entertained. Also, Brendon McCullum was the face of this opening game... but unlike in the IPL, where it was for his mastery, this time it was a much more... grisly sight. McCullum missed a hook shot in the third over from the fast-as-ever Brett Lee and was hit square in the nose, bloodying it and turning him into something of a viking image.

That really summed up the Heat's innings as none of McCullum, Matthew Hayden and James Hopes ever really got going. Allrounder Dan Christian, then just 25, hit a quick 32, and Andrew Robinson's 22 came from 12 balls, but the rest of the lineup fell well short and finished at 139, with veteran Stuart MacGill and young pacers Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc all taking two inexpensive wickets each.

The Sixers response was anchored by Brad Haddin, whose 76 took up nearly half of their balls but was a measured innings as he never really looked like getting out and brought them almost all the way. He was supported by an unusually slow Nic Maddinson and cameos from overseas player Michael Lumb as well as "allrounder" Steve Smith. Christian was again a shining light of the Heat, conceding just 20 from his four overs and dismissing Haddin (albeit with just six needed), and Chris Lynn bowled three overs for just 14, but the Heat's young pacemen were way too expensive. And as such the first game followed a trend that many of the next seasons would follow - the Sixers being professional and winning, and the Heat finding interesting ways to flop.

 

[DuneTiger]

I feel like 50% of this list will be between BBL04 and 08, that was prime BBL in my eyes.

 

[ddrap14]

I feel like 50% of this list will be between BBL04 and 08, that was prime BBL in my eyes.

Much of the top end is, but there's way more games in the teens era than I expected

 

[ddrap14]

#99: A Controversial Derby
BBL12, Game 27
Renegades 7/141 (Harvey 32*, Boult 2/23) beat Stars 9/108 (Larkin 48*, Rogers 5/16)

I didn't put the Warne-Samuels clash into the top 100, simply that game was far too non-noteworthy on the field. But this one was just as spicy and still had some notable on-field intrigue.

Let's set the stage - Renegades are 7/139 in the 20th over after a trio of 32s (Martin Guptill, Shaun Marsh and Mackenzie Harvey) and very few other notable contributions. Due to Marcus Stoinis suffering injury earlier in the competition and unusual bowling management, Adam Zampa was bowling the 20th, and Harvey was on strike. Non-striker Tom Rogers backed up quite a way, which Zampa noticed, and attempted to Mankad him. It was only ruled not out because Zampa had already started his bowling action, and it really blew up as boos rang out around the MCG two balls later at the end of the innings.



Perhaps he shouldn't have angered Rogers, though. Joe Clarke was bowled the first ball of the innings, and then both Beau Webster and Tom Rogers The Batter were dismissed by Rogers The Bowler in his third over - the former chipping an easy catch back to the bowler, and the latter also bowled. Rogers later picked up Hilton Cartwright and Luke Wood to make it 5/16, one of the most outstanding spells in BBL history. Mujeeb also took an incredible 2/7, and it was only a measured innings by Nick Larkin, who made 48 not out, that got the Stars through all 20 overs. Only Will Sutherland conceded more than a run a ball.

And in a fun twist, about a year later, Zampa joined the Renegades...

 

[ddrap14]

#98: Sun, Stars and Spice
BBL10, Game 27
Stars 6/183 (Stoinis 97*, Ellis 3/31) beat Hurricanes 6/173 (McDermott 91, Rainbird 2/22)

Remember the time the Stars signed Andre Fletcher?

You'd be forgiven for forgetting. He was one of the worst overseas signings ever - or so we thought at halfway. In the second half, he continued to be terrible - except for two matches he won singlehandedly. There was one where he outscored the 11 Adelaide Strikers combined, and then there was tonight.

This wasn't obvious when he got out after four balls of the game. He hit two fours, then got a shocking decision of caught behind when he missed the ball. (This was shortly prior to DRS in the Big Bash). Instead, it looked like if there was going to be One Hero for the Stars today, it'd be Marcus Stoinis, who bashed 97 off just 55 with seven sixes. He got some support from Nicholas Pooran (a better Caribbean signing) and Hilton Cartwright, but the rest of the lineup was slowed by tight and incisive bowling from Riley Meredith and Nathan Ellis, as well as the mere presence of Sandeep Lamichhane dismissing Glenn Maxwell, who learned that switch hitting has risk.

In reply, Hobart stuttered out of the gate thanks to an absolute clunker from D'Arcy Short, but Ben McDermott then picked up the pace. While he didn't get too much in terms of attacking support, Dawid Malan and Colin Ingram fed him strike and he had to be the one forcing the issue. However, Ingram, Malan and Short's sloth had the Hurricanes having to put the foot down. The Power Surge was taken in the 17th over, and Ingram woke up hitting a four, a six, and then...

Oh yeah. The Spiceman. What was that first paragraph all about again?


Caught in the outfield spectacularly. Tim David then chops a full toss onto his stumps (this isn't BBL14 David yet), and it's all onto McDermott and Peter Handscomb, who to his credit launches a couple body blows. The Canes need 19 from 7 balls when McDermott launches Liam Hatcher's final ball and...



Right in front of the dugout too. Now, do we think he was humble about this, or...



A truly match saving catch as the six would have given them just 13 needed from the final over, and the second ball of that was dispatched for a six too. As it was, desperation from the all-rounders ran out Handscomb a ball later, and Hobart fell short. Stoinis was the MOTM, but one name was on everyone's lips following this game, and it wasn't his.

 

[ddrap14]

#97: Two Oustanding Individual Spells
BBl12, Game 42
Thunder 135 (Davies 45, Ellis 4/27) lost to Hurricanes 5/136 (David 76*, Sams 4/18)

This game has a number of parallels to the last game: the Hurricanes were playing, it was close at times, and ultimately the efforts of 2 or 3 players on the winning team gave them the advantage over a one-man show on the other side.

The Hurricanes dropped Mitch Owen for this game (imagine that now) because of Matthew Wade's return, then lost the toss. Fortunately, they were apparently suited to bowling first. Riley Meredith produced one of the yorkers of the tournament to remove David Warner, and then Mat Gilkes was plumb LBW off the final ball of Nathan Ellis' first over. Remember that. Compounding the misery, Sam Whiteman was out the next ball, and a poor shot choice from Alex Ross left the Thunder 4/24. Daniel Sams joined Ollie Davies in the middle and the two stabilised until, with his first sign of any aggression, Sams holed out to Zak Crawley (remember that?) and Ben Cutting had the job to do all over again.

Just as it was going well, it wasn't.

Ellis returned for the 14th over and immediately Davies hit a convincing drive. But yet...

The shitty camerawork was only matched by Dan Ginnane's call (how did he get the job?) but Faheem's catch was on point and now, all of a sudden, Nathan McAndrew was facing a hat trick ball. And well...


Nathan Ellis is a pretty remarkable story - I'd encourage you to look up the full one at some point, but the TLDR is "NSW grade cricketer moves to Tasmania for one last shot at the big time, becomes Hurricanes title winning captain and Australian limited overs international star". Oh, and hat-trick taker. He even added Ben Cutting later, although that one was... less his doing.

"How did that happen?"

Paddy Dooley took the last two wickets and the Thunder were all out for 135 - albeit they did see out the 20 overs. The longshot of them defending that was suddenly looking much better three overs in, as Ben McDermott ran himself out and then Daniel Sams came to the party. Sams is easily one of the most erratic players I've ever seen, he can be great or awful, and today was a good day that he started with dismissing Caleb Jewell and Zak Crawley in the same over. Hobart were 3/20 and Tim David, at this point a late order hitter, joined his captain at the crease. It could have been even worse, as they immediately dropped Matthew Wade, and the rebuild began.

It lasted 2.5 overs. Ben Cutting was taken for 13 in the seventh, McAndrew another 13 in the 8th, and then Usman Qadir had an over of doom. His first ball to David ended up here:

His second here:


And his fifth in the hands of long off. The show was over! And then everyone looked at the big screen:


How do you overstep the front crease as a spinner?

That was the game really. Even though Sams came back on, dismissed Wade and Asif Ali, and got Faheem struggling badly (he was 1 off 7 at one point), David was never derailed, and even finished with one last flourish: plunking McAndrew onto the roof for six to hit the winning runs. With 75% of the season gone, this game put the Hurricanes into a finals spot at the Thunder's expense... not that that held.

 

[ddrap14]

#96: A Quick Hat Trick
BBL12, Game 10
Heat 8/137 (Peirson 45*, Rogers 4/23, Hosein 3/26) lose to Renegades 6/139 (Russell 57, Neser 4/32)

I really don't want to talk much about the Heat innings here, because it was pretty tragic. As with most games between BBL03 and the midpoint of BBL12, we lost our openers (in this case, Max Bryant and Colin Munro) cheap slogging, then a rebuild from Matt Renshaw and Sam Billings was ruined when Tom Rogers dismissed both. From there, Jimmy Peirson played well but got no support as Rogers and Akeal Hosein ran through the bottom end of our lineup.

Fine? Now we can move on to the hat trick.

Michael Neser will forever be remembered as a guy who should have played more for Australia. One of the best domestic bowlers ever and a very handy bat for sure, he would have been much better served in an era that didn't include Starc and Cummins being ++ versions of his +. But he's a legend of both the Shield and the BBL, and today was one of his crowning moments (although as we'll see later in the countdown, not his only).

Neser opened the bowling against Sam Harper and Nic Maddinson. His second ball was bowled to Jake Fraser-McGurk. Harper played a lovely square clip directly to Colin Munro at square leg, and got out in yet another stupid way.

This isn't the hat-trick. That began with Fraser-mcGurk nicking off the final ball of the over. After Maddinson and Aaron Finch (this was the BBL he demoted himself to 4) survived Mark Steketee at the other end, Maddinson joined Ben Cutting in this list's "how'd you chop that on?" club.


Jon Wells was facing the hat trick ball. Wells was then bowled in an even more ridiculous way:


Why would anyone leave a hat trick ball unless it's miles outside off? Anyway, that was 4/6 from 8 balls for Neser, and a BBL hat-trick - the second for the Heat after Josh Lalor a few years prior (this game does not make the top 100, sadly). And that was also the last time things were going right for the Heat. neser didn't even make it out of the over before Andre Russell, in at 6, put the ball here:


At one end, Finch played one of his worst BBL knocks ever, 31* off 43 (and being 19 off 37 at one point) - Matt Kuhnemann proving especially tricky for him. But it proved to actually work, as a combination of the small total and pyrotechnics at the other end from West Indian imports Russell and Akeal Hosein (87 off 61 between them) saw them home. Steketee dismissed both, but his last ball - Will Sutherland's only faced - ended up here...


And that was that.

 

[ddrap14]

#95: The Wrong-Way Batting Order
BBL10, Game 5
Hurricanes 5/174 (Short 72, Agar 2/28) beat Strikers 9/163 (Worrall 62*, Faulkner 3/21, Botha 2/20)

The start of this game could have gone so much worse for Hobart - after a slow D'Arcy Short start and a fast Will Jacks start, both of them skied a ball. But Daniel Worrall dropped Short, and he then accelerated with new man Colin Ingram, through an unlikely source. 38 off 40 when Rashid Khan came on for his third over, he planted his first, second and fourth deliveries deep into the stands at cow corner, and cut the one in between for four. He was out from his 48th ball when Worrall actually held on, but had scored 34 off the 7 prior to that. The Canes then lost 4/12 in a major stutter, including this stunner from Rashid on the fence:


Finishers Tim David and James Faulkner added 30 from the last 16 balls to post 174 for the Strikers to chase. This quickly proved too much. Matt Renshaw hit a couple lusty blows, but at the other end the wickets tumbled, including the infamous "Soccer Runout" that Riley Meredith effected on Ryan Gibson.


Daniel Worrall started to hit a few cleanly, but then Renshaw picked out deep midwicket and the procession continued at the other end. Worrall continued to spray the ball around the park, hitting a couple impressive sixes over cover, but when Wes Agar was yorked by Nathan Ellis, the game was dead at 9/102.

Danny Briggs (who, on a side note, should never have been batting 11 in a team with Peter Siddle and Wes Agar) thought otherwise. He joined Worrall in getting out the long handle and the runs started adding up. The Englishman was especially severe on D'Arcy Short, reverse-sweeping two fours and slog sweeping a six from his only over. While they still fell short, they added 61 in six overs for the final wicket - the second largest in history to Grant Elliott and Zulfiqar Babar in the 2016 PSL at the time - and put on a thorough show.