BBL10: Thoughts of a three-peat have Sydney Sixers determined to keep winning squad together
After going back-to-back in the Big Bash, the Sydney Sixers were entitled to party like they’d won the Super Bowl, but already plans are afoot for an unprecedented three-peat.
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Partying like they’d won the Super Bowl, the Sydney Sixers are already hatching plans for an unprecedented Big Bash three-peat as relieved tournament organisers allow themselves one deep breath before turning their attention to next season.
Doing their best impersonations of Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski as they watched the sun come up over Sydney Harbour, the Sixers are desperately hoping to keep the band together after beating the Perth Scorchers in Saturday’s grand final to complete back-to-back championships.
Several players have not yet re-signed for next season, including man of the match James Vince.
As a foreign player, the Englishman will have to go into the draft system, being introduced ahead of next season.
The rules have not been finalised yet but it is understood teams will be given the chance to match rival offers for players currently in their squads.
“Obviously I‘d absolutely love to come back here,” Vince said.
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🆠Just Champion things 👌
— Sydney Sixers (@SixersBBL) February 7, 2021
🎥 via @danchristian54 on Instagram#smashemsixers #BBL10 pic.twitter.com/o8R6BUByEA
Paceman Jackson Bird and veteran spinner Steve O’Keefe are now both off contract and preparing to hold talks with the Sixers’ general manager Jodie Hawkins.
At 37 and with three BBL titles for the Sixers already under his belt, O’Keefe remains unsure whether he will play next season but told The Daily Telegraph winning a third title has only whetted his appetite for more.
“There’s no way you can top this, this has been weird and wacky and hard work at times and fun, just a myriad of emotions but this is easily number one,” he said.
👌 As good as it gets from @vincey14 last night ðŸ˜#smashemsixers #BBL10 pic.twitter.com/atuB5DqBNz
— Sydney Sixers (@SixersBBL) February 7, 2021
“Everyone I speak to who’s played the game says keep going as long as you can but I’ll be honest with them if I can’t do it anymore.”
Hawkins said the left arm tweaker was always welcome:“ We’ll have a chat in a couple of weeks once everyone gets to go home and spend some time with their family and friends but SOK’s always got a future at our club,” she said.
Skipper Moises Henriques, also a three-time winner with the Sixers, has already put pen to paper and pondering more success.
“There’s no reason why we can’t keep getting better,” he said.
“As long as we don’t get complacent as a team and as a squad we keep remaining in the present and engaged, I just can’t see how we won’t give it a shake in the future as well.”
Forced to play the entire season on the road, the Sixers finally got to play in front of their home fans for the grand final, with 25,000 filing through the gates of the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The television ratings went through the roof, with 1.3 million tuning in for the final and over 41 million over the season, without including streaming services.
“It was an incredible end to what’s been a pretty remarkable season,” BBL tournament chief Alistair Dobson said.
“We’ve always had confidence in the BBL because we know how popular it is with cricket fans and everyone else around Australia but I think people really just loved having Big Bash on TV this season particularly because it created a sense of normality when things aren’t normal.”
Pulling it off took a massive logistical operation behind the scenes.
The ever-changing border regulations meant players, staff, officials and venue operators had to make big sacrifices to ensure the tournament went ahead without a single game being lost.
“There are people who left their homes in November who are just heading back now,” Dobson said.
“It’s a real credit to everyone involved and it just shows how passionate they are about BBL, but at the same time, we’ve learnt an enormous amount how we need to operate under those unique circumstances.
“If we have to go through something similar next season, while it would be tough, we’re infinitely better placed to understand how we can alleviate some of those pressures.”
SIXERS INVINCIBLE
When it came down to the crunch, the Big Bash season that was like no other ended just like the first and the last competitions — with an emphatic victory for the Sydney Sixers and heartbreak for their beaten opponents.
Crowned champions for a record-equalling third time, the Sixers added BBL10 to their previous titles in BBL01 and BB09, but make no mistake about it, this one was extra special.
Saturday’s 27-run thumping of the Perth Scorchers was the sweetest of them all and not just because it was their only appearance on home soil this season.
Limited to three quarters capacity, the SCG was rocking like it used to before the global pandemic, and the men in magenta delivered the perfect display for the occasion — a brutal demolition of their fiercest rivals.
The Sixers’ English opener James Vince produced one of the great solo performances under the pressure cooker atmosphere of a BBL grand final, both with bat and in the field.
Left stranded on 98 when Andrew Tye bowled an unplayable wide in last weekend’s qualifying win over the Scorchers, Vince again narrowly missed out on achieving the club’s first ever century.
The crowd groaned when he cruelly departed for 95 — caught slicing to backward point — but his 60-ball knock, featuring 10 boundaries and three thunderous sixes, meant as much as any hundred ever made in BBL.
Not only did he break the hearts of the Western Australians, but his cavalier innings succeeded in lifting the spirits of all the Sixers after their main attacking weapon fell cheaply.
Vince was partly to blame for Josh Philippe’s run out for nine — guilty of ball watching when his fellow opener called him through for a quick single — but he made amends for the mix up.
Deservedly named player of the tournament, Philippe was looking in ominous form when he dispatched a slower ball from Jason Behrendorff into the Victor Trumper Stand but the communication breakdown with Vince killed his chances of leapfrogging Alex Hales to finish as the leading runscorer this season.
Other than Vince, no-one else from the Sixers made more than 20 but the numbers were misleading because five other players got to double figures at better than a run a ball — combining to lift the home side to a daunting total of 6-188.
It proved too big a total to chase down for the Scorchers, who lost the inaugural Big Bash grand final to the Sixers in 2012 but won their last two title deciders, in 2015 and 2017.
Their head to head record in finals now stands at 2-2 and with a win over the Melbourne Stars last year, the Sixers now join the Scorchers as the only teams to win three titles as well as back-to-back championships.
There were some anxious moments early on for the Sixers when veteran spinner Steve O’Keefe dropped Liam Livingston at third man when the Scorchers’ opener was on one.
Given a second life, Livingstone went on to make 45 before he was caught in the deep by Jordan Silk, who has one of the safest pairs of hands in the competition.
But it was that man Vince that pulled off the two most important plays in the field after being wired up to live chat with Fox Sports.
He took a routine catch at mid-wicket to get rid of Cameron Bancroft for 30 when he was starting to look dangerous then pulled off a screamer at cover to send Mitchell Marsh on his way, dropping his soundpiece in the process as the Scorchers stumbled to finish on 9-160.
“I got a bit carried away after,” Vince explained. “It was such a big wicket for them.
“The microphone fell out as well. Just important to take that wicket. Crucial.”
Sydney Sixers, back-to-back BBL titles. 25,000 fans at the SCG. THAT’S EPIC!#BBL10 #EpicMoments pic.twitter.com/fQStpT9JfP
— News Cricket (@NewsCorpCricket) February 6, 2021
Sydney’s Dan Christian told Channel 7 the title was the perfect finish to a tough season.
“An awesome season and we played well, to top it off with the win against these guys,” Christian said.
“It is awesome, to have such a massive crowd behind us all the way and we played all these away games everywhere else, to get one back is awesome.”
Man of the final James Vince said he was thrilled he could contribute during the finals series.
“I have really enjoyed my time here and I’m lucky to be the one getting that award tonight. I cannot speak highly enough of everyone on the pitch and in the franchise. Outstanding,” he said.
“You are happy to make those contributions and as I said before, I could not have benefited the guys who have been playing well all competition. Lucky that it came off for me tonight but everyone stood up at different times and it has been enjoyable.
“Not just the players but the backroom staff and everyone behind the scenes has made it easy to be in the hub and on the road for so long and to be back with the home crowd, a performance like that, very special.”
Veteran Sixer Steve O’Keefe told Fox Cricket that winning this year’s title was extra special.
“To get out there and be this clinical, to see James Vince play the way he did, Ben Dwarshuis closed out some games in some really clutch patches out there, it just couldn’t be better than the fairytale finish that we had,” O’Keefe said.
“I think this one is (extra special). Given the circumstances, every team I think did it hard, everyone in the country’s done it hard.
“Like every team we had our ups and downs and guys kicking the can but we hung in together and I can’t thank the guys off the field enough.
“We probably had five or six blokes who didn’t play any cricket who really dug deep, were throwing balls hitting balls and really looked after each other.”
The spinner did not confirm whether he would be retiring, but said he wants to remain part of the Sixers set-up regardless of his future.
“ I don’t know. I’ll have a chat to Jodes (Sixers GM Jodie Hawkins) I don’t know if she’ll want a 40-year-old who’s a bit tubby around the sides
“We’ve got a great roster, a great couple of young spinners, the last thing I want to do is hold up for them, I’ve had a great 10 years so whatever happens after this point would be a bonus. I’d love to stay connected somehow, my heart’s in this team.”
Scorchers captain Ashton Turner paid tribute to Sydney’s tenacity during a difficult season.
“The credit goes to Sydney who have been the best team in the competition over two years and were too good tonight and they have been the benchmark and we cannot wait to have a crack next year,” he said.
“No surprise that two of the best teams in the competition run into each other at the sharp end and we play each other a lot and that is exciting and we love the challenge and well done to them tonight.
“A lot of work has gone on to get the tournament off the ground and it was not long ago that we were not sure if we could play cricket and also to be here and play in front of a crowd.”
VINCE TAKES THE POINTS IN REMATCH
The first encounter between Perth Scorcher Andrew Tye and Sydney Sixer James Vince at Saturday night’s BBL final was always going to be dramatic.
Boos rang out around the SCG as Sixers fans let Tye know that he was still not forgiven for denying Vince the chance to achieve the club’s first century when he bowled a controversial last-ball wide at Manuka Oval last week, handing victory to Sydney and stranding the batsman on 97.
Vince was itching to take Tye on, and scored six runs off the Scorcher’s first two deliveries.
But then, once again, the West Australian rattled the Sixers — and this time it was definitely intentional.
Tye’s third ball to Vince struck his pad and panic ensued.
Poor communication between Sydney’s batsmen resulted in Josh Philippe — the BBL’s Player of the Tournament and second leading runscorer — sprinting down the pitch and immediately and run out by Aaron Hardie.
Suddenly, the Sixers were sitting on 1-28 and without their star batter Philippe.
Fox Cricket commentators Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne attempted to dissect the bizarre dismissal.
“(Vince) thought that if he goes, Philippe has a chance of being run out anyway at the striker’s end. So it’s almost like he got himself back in the crease to eliminate that end of danger.
“But there was no communication, he looked down to the ball more so than his batting partner” Gilchrist offered on Fox Cricket
“He’s looking for the ball, not sure where it is, but look where Philippe is, Vince would have got back. Vince went to his crease very, very quickly. Philippe sacrificed himself.”
The booing for Tye persisted, but the bowler wasn’t fazed — he was just sticking to the plan.
“We got two messages: partnerships with the bat and wickets with the ball,” the Scorchers’ Liam Livingston told Fox Cricket commentators during play. “That’s all we’ve said all tournament.”
Taking the wicket of Philippe clearly wasn’t enough for Tye, and he set his sights on Sydney’s skipper Moises Henriques.
He sent the Australian cricketer (18 runs from 11 balls) back to the dugout after a brilliant catch by Hardie in the 13th over.
Then, to the dismay of Sixers fans, the bowler dismissed Dan Christian (20 runs off 14 balls) off a high ball that looked like it should have been called a no-ball.
Tye finished on 2-29 for his four overs.
To his credit, Vince put his head down after Philippe’s awkward dismissal. He mustered a sensational 95-run knock — 10 fours and three sixes — to set Sydney up for their 188-run total.
Once again, Vince came painfully close to claiming the Sixers’ first century.
And once again, Tye played a part in denying him the honour.
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