Big Bash League: Perth Scorchers to use blueprint from 2021/22 title for pair of road crunch games

Perth Scorchers will use their famous COVID championship as a blueprint ahead of two crunch clashes on the road that will define their season.

And captain Ashton Turner has declared the club has high expectations for this campaign because they have “too many good players” to not contend for yet another title.

After Wednesday night’s defeat to Melbourne Renegades — which was marred by a controversial catch call involving Turner — the Scorchers sit in second place, but could slide by the time they play Adelaide Strikers on Sunday night.

They have away matches against the Strikers and then a return clash with the Renegades in Melbourne to contend with before they close out the season at home against Melbourne Stars.

It means performing on the road will shape their finals chances and title hopes.

But amid tricky conditions at their Optus Stadium home, the Scorchers have actually lost just one of their three games on the road this season.

Their batting group are becoming the Big Bash League’s road warriors. They have passed 200 each time away from home, while posting a string of low totals in Perth.

The franchise hosted just one match on their way to the first of their back-to-back titles in the 2021/22 season. That including playing what was nominally a home match at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium, as well as several matches at neutral venues.

Six players from that season’s final — Josh Inglis, Mitch Marsh, Turner, Laurie Evans, Ashton Agar and Jhye Richardson — are still on the club’s list, while Nick Hobson, Cooper Connolly, Aaron Hardie and Matt Kelly were all in the squad on the road.

Turner said they were inspired by their success that season ahead of their latest trip.

“We’ve got a lot of power in our batting unit. We have seen that at the Gabba, Hobart and Sydney Thunder, we’ve had three games on good wickets and we’ve scored over 200,” he said.

“Our batters have a pretty clear game plan on conditions like that. The challenge for is to be good everywhere and win everywhere.

“I don’t have to rewind too far, BBL11, we played the first game here in Perth and then we were locked out of the State during COVID and we had to find a way to be successful on what was some really used wickets towards the back-end of that campaign.

“We played on Marvel a lot, we played on some east coast wickets that stuck low and slow and were starting to spin and didn’t have the pace we expect.

“There’s no doubt that’s a challenge for us and will be again towards the back-end of this competition.”

While the Scorchers are battling injury concerns, with Agar racing the clock to be fit before the end of the season and Joel Paris awaiting more news on a groin injury, their side now has their full complement of imports and will also feature Test squad members Richardson and Inglis in coming games.

Turner said the Big Bash powerhouse - with five titles already to their name - expect to be up the top of the ladder all the time.

And he said the defeat to the Renegades was only a stumbling block.

“We’re frustrated, because we have really high expectations and we think we should be towards the top-end of this table and there’s no doubt we were on a trajectory where momentum was rolling with us, we’d won our last three games,” Turner said.

“Having not been perfect, we’d been starting to put together some really exciting performances. It’s a small stumbling block tonight. It’s frustrating, but that can be T20 cricket at times.

“We’ve got too many good players to struggle for extend periods.

“We’ll look forward to a road trip over the next couple of days and hopefully bounce back.”

Typically a good white-ball wicket, the Optus Stadium pitch has proved a nightmare for batting teams in recent weeks.

Excluding their rain-affected season-opener against Sydney Sixers, the Scorchers have posted 150, 156 and 127 at the venue, while Adelaide were rolled for 120 and the Renegades needed all 20 overs to reach 130 on Wednesday night.

The same pitch was used for matches on Sunday night and Wednesday.

Perth speedster Mahli Beardman said batters had struggled with variable bounce.

“It’s been uncharacteristic of Optus a little bit. Not a bad cricket wicket, I think it’s still thrilling cricket, low-total cricket can be some of the best viewing,” Beardman told The West Australian.

“But I think it has been a little bit slower and more spin-friendly than we have seen here.

“I think it was a little bit variable, I think it started to crack a little bit today and just the boys said it felt a bit two-paced. It can be hard then to trust your swing.”

Turner said it was on the Scorchers to be able to adapt.

“The challenge as cricketers and professionals is to be adaptable and the best players in the world are adaptable and succeed wherever they go,” he said.

“Whilst that wasn’t the wicket we have come to expect in Perth, it is our job to win the game of cricket and find a way to be successful.

“I think they (ground staff) would put their hand up and say that’s not the ideal surface they want to prepare for a Big Bash game, but it’s also not a terrible surface.

“I think both teams would be disappointed with their batting performances, par definitely wasn’t 125 or 130. It’s probably a 160-par wicket, which is 20 runs short of historically what has been the average winning score.

“They’re slightly different conditions, but we’re not going to sit and point our finger at that.”