Heat choke Strikers in slog overs to defend 206

Brisbane Heat 5 for 206 (Ross 64, Peirson 46) beat Adelaide Strikers 6 for 196 (Dunk 85, Weatherald 52, Steketee 3-32) by 10 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball details

Marshalled expertly by Brendon McCullum, Brisbane Heat held their nerve to storm Adelaide Oval and deny the Strikers in a high-scoring Big Bash League shootout in front of a hefty pre-Christmas crowd.

McCullum and Jimmy Peirson set the Heat on the road to a tally of more than 200 on a pristine batting surface, before the visitors persevered through a blistering opening stand by Ben Dunk and Jake Weatherald to constrict the Strikers middle order and walk off the victors.

Slam Dunk

The Heat showcased a useful recruit of their own when the former Striker Alex Ross tailed off the Heat’s innings with a series of telling blows, but it was Dunk’s pyrotechnics at the start of the Strikers innings that stuck in the memory. Though he was dropped twice, Dunk also produced a series of exceptionally clean blows, the best of which was an inside out cover-driven six off Samuel Badree that comfortably cleared a teal wall of fielders on the off side.

Dunk was able to pull along the promising left-hander Weatherald in his slipstream, and the pair now look likely to be one of the more dangerous opening combinations in the tournament. Dunk’s own hitting was to be placed in perspective by the struggles of the batsmen that followed him, quickly turning a gettable …

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