Brisbane Heat 3 for 212 (Lynn 88*, Bryant 65, Renshaw 30) beat Hobart Hurricanes 9 for 181 (Bailey 28, Prestwidge 2-16, Steketee 2-29) by 31 runs
Having begun the new year by being skittled out for 109, Brisbane Heat roared back to beat Hobart Hurricanes by 31 runs at the Bellerive Oval to make an upward move on the BBL points table.
Heat captain Chris Lynn top scored with 88 while Max Bryant smashed 65 to help Heat post 212, their highest BBL total of all time. After that, each of their bowlers got among the wickets to comfortably win. Six Hurricanes batsmen reached their twenties, but none of them went past it, and that was the major difference between the two sides in the end.
Bryant's fireworks
Riley Meredith removed Tom Banton in the second over to bring Bryant and Lynn together, and he set the tone by hitting three fours in his first five balls. James Faulkner bore the brunt of Lynn's assault in the third over, and pulled a calf muscle in the process, bowling no further overs in the game.
With Lynn finding his feet, Bryant began playing aggressively too, taking on legspinner Qais Ahmad for two fours. When left-arm spinner Clive Ross was introduced, the batsmen creamed 15 off the sixth over to end the Powerplay on 1 for 60.
Lynn temporarily took a back seat to allow his young partner hog maximum strike. Bryant was particularly strong on the leg side, pulling and hooking short balls to the midwicket fence. In the 10th over, Bryant cut Meredith for four to reach his first BBL fifty of the season, and followed it up with another four to lift Heat to 1 for 100 after 10 overs.
In the 11th over, Bryant fell to the left-arm wristspin of D'Arcy Short trying to clear cover. His attempted slap off a googly found the fielder on the 30-yard circle.
Lynn consolidates, but doesn't get the hundred
When Bryant fell, Lynn was being starved of strike. In the seven overs before Bryant's dismissal, Lynn had faced just the 12 deliveries, so when No. 4 Matt Renshaw walked in, it was Lynn who decided to change gears.
He struck Qais for a six and four in the 12th, then earned his 18th BBL fifty two overs later. But he left the big shots for the 18th over, when he struck Nathan Ellis for two fours and a six to move into his eighties.
But once again - like it was with Bryant - Lynn could not find the strike at the death. Not that it was a particularly bad thing. In the last two overs, No. 5 Ben Cutting clattered 18 off eight balls while before him, Renshaw played a nifty 17-ball 30 to help Heat finish on their highest BBL score.
Hurricanes begin with resolve
In the past, the Hurricanes' two highest BBL chases have come against Heat, so 213 was not a total that the home side was deterred by. Openers Short and Caleb Jewell played their shots in the early exchange, the latter being more adventurous with his paddles and sweeps. After three overs, Hurricanes were 0 for 25, so Lynn introduced left-arm spinner Zahir Khan to stem the run flow. But that ploy didn't work either as he was taken for 15 runs in his opening over.
Jewell, however, perished in the fifth over, caught behind by Mark Steketee, but the incoming batsman Ben McDermott did not slow proceedings down. Although troubled at the start by Zahir's spin, McDermott took on fast bowler Steketee for back-to-back sixes and then clobbered the spinner for a reverse-sweeped four as well. It seemed Hurricanes were preparing for the big assault.
Bowlers apply the choke
For Hurricanes to make a chase of the game, they needed to keep wickets in hand entering the final 10 overs. However, that didn't happen as they lost both the set McDermott and Short in the 10th and 11th over respectively.
David Miller and George Bailey restarted Hurricanes' rebuild after that, but with substantial number of overs from the accurate Ben Laughlin and Zahir still to go, the chase did not have the grandstand finish it was set up for.
The Hurricanes began to lose wickets at regular intervals, with each of their bowlers earning a scalp, and despite a late charge with the bat from Clive Rose - who struck an entertaining 13-ball 27 - it was all too much for the Hurricanes batsmen on the night.
