Hits & Misses: Sugar hits, collapses and run outs dominate

Perth Scorchers made plenty of mistakes in their win over Melbourne Renegades but what they do right is just so good they escaped.

Here are our hits and misses.

Hits

1. Sugar hit

After falling to 2-4, the pressure was well and truly on the home side. However, Josh Inglis and Aaron Hardie made the recovery look very easy. In overs seven, eight and nine, they added 42 runs. That’s from just 18 deliveries. They peppered the rope and left the fielders with hands on their heads as they hit the ball straight over them for maximums.

2. Welcome to Perth!

Jhye Richardson gave Joe Clarke a workout with the second over of the run chase. Firing at 136km/h plus, he cut the Englishman in half. He followed it up by beating his outside edge with an unplayable seaming delivery. The crowd thought they had their man. He closed the over by thudding one into Clarke’s body to push his point home. Just one run came from the over.

3. Ronaaldooooooo!

Jake Fraser-McGurk could not believe the way his innings came to an end. His batting partner, Joe Clarke, nailed a straight drive down the ground. But it just flicked Andrew Tye’s right shoe and deviated onto the pegs. Tye celebrated from the ground as the crowd roared. It took a long third umpire review before the decision was confirmed, but the ball moved off the shoe, and Fraser-McGurk was well short of his ground.

Misses

1. Bloom or doom?

The Scorchers’ latest power-packed opening partnership is off to a very rocky start. Young sensation Cooper Connolly has found himself batting in the top two to start the season and has been joined by boom import Zak Crawley for the last two clashes. The partnership promises much but will take time to find its feet. In the pair’s first match together, Connolly was out early, with the duo putting together just 16. Against the Renegades, it was the Englishman Crawley who went first, caught at mid-off having put on just two runs.

2. Amateur hour

The Scorchers were flying at 2-124 and looked destined for a score of 185 plus. But they lost the plot, overestimating their luck. After Aaron Hardie fell, they lost 7-5 to be bundled out for 162. The collapse included a period in which the home side lost four wickets in five balls. And it had little to do with good bowling. The batters just continued to swing for the hills with much of the middle order caught on the rope, and the tail-enders caught inside the ring. A poor run-out ended the mayhem.

3. Marsh boos

The massive Optus Stadium crowd were in good form for most of the night but had a moment to forget as a WA great came to the crease. In his final season of Big Bash cricket, Shaun Marsh was greeted with boos. The former Scorcher has spent three seasons with the Renegades after Perth moved him on to refresh their list. It was his first game of the season, and he continued to battle knee concerns that effectively ended his first-class career. He ended up making a half century.