Jackson Barrett: Finn Allen’s maiden Big Bash League century shows merits of two-year contracts and patience

Finn Allen’s power-packed maiden Big Bash League century showed the merits of two-year contracts and sticking by international players. That’s not just for Perth Scorchers, but for the league itself in the dog-eat-dog world of franchise cricket competitions. After a tough opening season in Australia where he admitted he thought too much about the conditions in Australia and not enough about his own game, Allen revealed before the tournament he had reflected on his approach and made adjustments. He made a blistering 79 in a losing cause against Brisbane Heat last month and then exploded in the Scorchers’ massive victory over Melbourne Renegades on Thursday night. His 101 off 53 balls is remarkable because the first four of them were dots. That’s a player who has made adjustments to the go-at-all-costs approach that had him tripping up last summer. There was a test of that again when he pounded Gurinder Sandhu for three giant sixes from the first three balls of an over. There was a risk he would try and blast three more and while he played and missed the fourth one, he was more measured for the rest of the set. But that was the sheer brute force of one of the best hitters in world cricket, with a bit of calm to match. On Channel 7’s coverage, Glenn Maxwell said he hadn’t seen a bigger six at Marvel Stadium than the third one from the Sandhu spree and Allen also struck a ball into the roof, Michael Hussey style. The Scorchers are now staring down a chance to finish on top of the ladder. In a snakes-and-ladder final clash of the regular season, they will either finish first or third after their clash with Melbourne Stars at Optus Stadium on Saturday night. Now one of their biggest stumbling blocks is their own wicket. Perth have control over the conditions they play in (the curators are WA Cricket and Scorchers employees) but it has proved tricky to produce consistent decks at the venue this summer and this season’s home games haven’t featured typical pace and bounce. With their score of 220 against the Renegades, Perth continued their bizarre run of pasting more than 200 runs in all five of their away games, whereas their top score at home is just 153. With a fully-loaded Stars batting lineup heading their way and a bowling attack that has had some shaky moments, they’re going to have to bring their away form back over the border with them.