Victory in defeat for all of Adelaide

The last time more than 50,000 people turned up at Adelaide Oval to see an ageing guitarist make what was widely expected to be his final performance in the Church City, they filed out at night’s end with a spring in their step and a euphoric buzz in their ears.

But that was Keith Richards, performing with his other fossilised Stones just as this cricket season was getting underway.

And while many of the 52,633 who packed the nation’s newest super stadium last night were doubtless aware of it being Brett Lee’s farewell outing here, he was not the artiste they had come to celebrate.

So as Lee and his Sydney Sixers moved the heaving congregation to silence – firstly with a brutal late innings batting onslaught and then with a clatter of early wickets that paved the way for an 87-run drubbing – the Adelaide Strikers fans who filed out at game’s end felt they ain’t got no satisfaction.

Quick Single: Sixers romp into Big Final

Sure their team had finished top of the ladder and captured the imagination of a new, young fan base as well as given SA’s success-starved followers something to smile at after years of disappointment and a current season that had begun amid unthinkable tragedy.

No doubt they were part of history – the biggest turn-out the spruced up Oval has hosted for a cricket match since 50,962 squeezed in for day two of the 1932-33 Bodyline Test, all hoping to see Bradman bat.

They too were left aggrieved when their hero fell for a paltry eight, and others were felled during the course of a spiteful day that grew increasingly intemperate.

There was no suggestion of leg theory in last night’s one-sided encounter that saw the KFC T20 Big Bash League pacesetters fall to the heftiest defeat in the franchise’s history.

And their bid for a first Final appearance and the lucrative Champions League berth that accompanied it end in damp ignominy after a disastrous run chase and an unexpected rain shower.

Indeed, the only Larwood-esque moment came in the fourth over of the evening, and it elicited a response nearer to consternation than combustion such is the way cricket has changed since that day last November at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Sixers opener Rikki Wessels attempted to latch on to a short ball from the Strikers’ Kane Richardson but miscued and the ball stuck fortunately fast between the grille and the peak of his protective helmet.

Rather like a shark cage diver, he was left eyeballing the great white threat and the kiss he subsequently planted on the crash hat – born of blessed relief rather than the usual patriotism – came after a fleeting moment of panic for all that the predator had somehow found a way through.

As events unfolded, it was the Sixers sole miscalculation of an almost flawless exhibition.

The momentum gained by the men in magenta through their last-over steal in the Sydney Smash earlier in the week got them off to a flying start that had the home-town favourites on the back foot from the outset.

From there, the pressure of favouritism and all-too-obvious expectation from beyond the fence took their toll.

Richardson, regarded as one of the white-ball game’s safest outfielders, juggled and spilled a fly ball at third man.

Ben Laughlin, a key reason for the Strikers finishing atop the table as the competition’s most effective bowler, went for 51 from his four overs – the most expensive completed spell in a BBL match at the Adelaide Oval.

There was a period in the middle overs when warhorse fast bowler Shaun Tait and young colt leg-spinner Adam Zampa slowed the flow, with the Sixers restricted to 31 runs from seven overs mid-innings.

But it was Sixers opener Nic Maddinson who had best summed up conditions, the hint of slowness in the pitch even convincing Tait to take the pace off at times.

Having got away to a fluid start in the powerplay overs, Maddinson cleverly knocked the ball around and kept his wicket intact knowing it would be tough for a new batsman to come in and start blazing straight away, as is required in the dash to the finish.

Consequently, he had worked out the pitch’s idiosyncrasies when it came time to step on the gas, and his 85 from 48 balls was the reason why the Sixers belted 98 from the final seven overs.

And why the home team, despite the exhortations of the already nervous crowd, began their run chase with all the conviction of a non-swimmer wading in past their waist.

It wasn’t so much that the Strikers lost early wickets as they set off in pursuit of the biggest home ground run chase in their brief history.

It was the way most of those batsmen fell that was telling.

Time and again, as the ball held up on the pitch and desperate swinging of bats that was demanded by the escalating asking rate became more frantic, the ball would find an edge and spiral into the night sky where a sure-handed Sixers outfielder would make certain of the offering.

The top order that had carried all before it throughout the preliminary rounds went missing in action when most needed – Brad Hodge the only Strikers player in the top nine to reach 20.

And he was having his first competitive hit for the year.

What’s more, every Sixers bowler was rewarded with at least one wicket and none of them went at much more than a run a ball in a consummate group bowling effort.

The head of steam they so tellingly brought into this semi-final will now propel into what is effectively a home final in Canberra, now virtually an outer south-western suburb of Sydney.

For the third time in as many seasons, the team that had finished top and entered the BBL Finals as favourite had been bounced from the competition at the first opportunity.

Which says much about the rollercoaster, hard-to-predict nature of 20-over cricket.

And which is also why the fans who lap it up but then happily move on to the next fast and furious contest after each up or down love it so.

In record-breaking numbers.

It’s a game of momentum as much as form.

When it’s rolling for you, it’s pretty tough for the other mob to arrest and then turn it around in the space of 20 overs.

Everyone understands that.

Which explains why, an hour after the game was done, as the seagulls returned in safety and the stadium lights dimmed to a bare minimum, Strikers wicketkeeper Tim Ludeman – a player whose stocks spiked sharply in this year’s tournament – was still signing autographs for those still hanging back.

If anyone summed up the match and its essence it was Ludeman.

A feature in that video grab moment when a ball squeezed hard into the pitch bounced vertically and caught the peak of his cap, dislodging it from his sparsely-thatched head in something of a Three Stooges moment.Image Id: ~/media/8DACBF45BB2D4E068CA3AAC04B23B585

He then unfurled a brief burst of crowd-lifting heroism with the bat when he clubbed a six and a four off Doug Bollinger, only to bunt a half-track loosener from spinner Stephen O’Keefe to extra cover.

But then, as the disappointment of a season prematurely ended dissipated as quickly as the vast throng into the Adelaide night, he made his way slowly around the boundary fence signing bits of apparel and posing for countless selfies.

It might not have been the hand-held moment most were looking to take home with them from this history-making event, but it’s a nice keepsake of a fun, family night out.