Matthew Wade rewrites record books with whirlwind knock as Hurricanes storm into BBL finals
Matthew Wade has smashed the second highest individual score of all time in Adelaide to catapult the Hobart Hurricanes to what seemed an unlikely Big Bash finals appearance.
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Hit men Matthew Wade and D’Arcy Short revisited the scene of their greatest performance and produced a sequel more scintillating than the original to lift Hobart into the Big Bash finals.
Nearly 12 months to the day when the dynamic duo combined for an unbroken 158-run union at Adelaide Oval to register just the second 10-wicket win in BBL history over the Adelaide Strikers, the pair returned to rewrite more records.
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Needing victory to secure their place in the top five — a week after falling to the Strikers in a defeat which looked to have ended their campaign — Hobart blasted a ground record 1-217 to exact revenge.
The Hurricanes then survived two horror dropped catches and a nerve-racking finale before securing a 10-run victory.
In just their second partnership of the tournament due to overlapping international commitments, captain Wade (130 not out, 61 balls) and Short (72 off 55) produced the competition’s second highest stand ever of 203, while Wade surpassed his sidekick as the second highest individual scorer behind Marcus Stoinis’ 147 not out a fortnight ago.
It’s not often Short is made to look pedestrian but while the two-time player of the tournament struggled for rhythm at one end, Wade was rocketing at the other, reaching the first century of his T20 career from the same amount of balls (48) as Short took to reach his half ton.
The pair clubbed 15 boundaries and 11 sixes between them in a stunning blitzkrieg, which included 26 from Billy Stanlake’s sole over, taking down Rashad Khan (0-35 from three) and leaving seamers Peter Siddle and Wes Agar with combined figures of 0-77 from their eight overs.
Wade has now amassed 252 runs in his last three innings at an average of 126 and incredible strike-rate of 203.
However the performance was far from polished in the field, with a sloppy effort highlighted by two poor dropped catches which let Phil Salt off the hook to keep the hosts with a sniff off pulling off the chase.
Salt should have been on his way back to the pavilion second ball, only for retiring George Bailey to spill a sitter at point.
Short then grassed another straight forward chance at deep mid wicket in the last over of the powerplay when the Englishman was on 43 — with the ball ricocheting into the rope for a boundary.
Salt cracked a 33-ball 66 before Short made amends in the same position to end the carnage, but Travis Head (47 off 37) and Alex Carey (39 from 24) kept Adelaide in the hunt right until the death, with Nathan Ellis again stepping to the plate to help close out the nailbiter.
The Hurricanes will now remarkably host the eliminator at Blundstone Arena next Thursday against the Sydney Thunder if Brisbane loses to the Renegades tonight, or head to the Gabba to clash with the Heat should they win.
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