BBL Challenger | Incredible Hayden Kerr 98 takes Sydney Sixers to final

Sydney Sixers made their place into the Big Bash League final for the seventh time in the tournament’s history by defeating Adelaide Strikers by four wickets.

The game offered plenty of drama as the battered Sixers pulled the game back in the final overs of the game owing to Hayden Kerr, who was opening the bat in the BBL for the first time this season.

Kerr, a bowling all rounder, played the innings of his life scoring 98 off just 58 balls, to keep Sixers’ dreams alive of a historic third title in the Big Bash League. The innings though did not come without some fortunate moments, as Kerr rode his luck a couple of times before blasting the Strikers out of the game.

But that is allowed to a team that has lost significant players and have a star batter blocked from entering the team by Cricket Australia. To make matters worse, Sixers possibly have further lost two of their players in Jordan Silk and Steve O’Keefe who were seen limping during the game.

With this forming the background while chasing 168 runs in 20 overs. Sixers were stuck in the early phase of the innings losing wickets consistently till the 15th over. However, Kerr held fort from one side despite struggling to connect in the early part of the innings.

Needing 58 from the final five overs, it was one of BBL’s top superstars - Sean Abbott that provided the impetus, by counterattacking Henry Thornton in his third over.

A six in the fifth ball of the 16th over of the game opened the floodgates for the Sixers, who kept finding the odd boundary while ticking away with singles and twos throughout that phase of play. Abbott was key in the journey scoring 41 off just 20 balls and hit two sixes and two boundaries to keep the Sixers alive.

Work still needed to be done in the final over of the game where Sixers needed 12 runs with Abbott and Kerr on crease.

And then began the drama.

The first two balls from Harry Conway resulted in two wickets, a crucial one of Abbott in the first ball and then of Ben Dwarshuis getting runout on the second. Once again, just when Strikers started to believe Kerr slapped a big six in the fourth ball of the game bringing down the equation to four runs off two balls.

As Kerr looked to go for another big one, a limping Jordan Silk just about managed to complete two runs in the penultimate ball of the innings.

In an absolute shocking or a genius move, Sixers retired hurt Jordan Silk and sent assistant coach Jay Lenton out to bat for the final ball of the game.

As the Strikers team and the crowd tried to get over the suddenness of the move, a misfield in the cow corner granted Sixers four wicket victory in the final ball of the match, sending them to another final of the Big Bash League.

Earlier in the day, Strikers faltered against the Sixers early on but resourceful knocks from Ian Cockbain and Jonathan Wells turned the game around for them. A late surge from Matt Renshaw bolstered their score to 167 in 20 overs which they did not think was possible even in the 10th over of the game.

With the loss, Strikers’ incredible late tournament momentum finally came to a halt as they were taken out of competition in a final ball thriller.

The final match of the tournament is scheduled to be held on Friday, 28 January between Perth Scorchers and the Sydney Sixers.