Lynn named BBL|06 player of tournament

Brisbane Heat master blaster Chris Lynn has been named the KFC Big Bash League player of the tournament for the second straight year.

Despite playing only five games before international duty and injury prematurely ended his BBL season, Lynn clobbered 309 runs from only 174 balls, including a season-high 26 sixes that saw him crowned the Weet-Bix King of the Six.

The 25-year-old claimed the gong with 18 votes, which were awarded on a 3-2-1 basis by the standing umpires at the end of each regular season match, with a player capable of earning a maximum of six points per game.

Lynn beat the competition’s leading run-scorer Ben Dunk and highest wicket-taker Sean Abbott - who both earnt 16 votes - while Melbourne Renegades skipper Aaron Finch finished on 14.

As one half of the Bash Brothers alongside Heat captain Brendon McCullum, Lynn lit up BBL|06 with an astonishing display of power hitting, with no knock greater than his unbeaten 98, which featured 11 sixes, against eventual champions the Perth Scorchers.

The Queenslander’s blistering form made him irresistible to the national selectors who basically had no choice but to draft him into Australia’s one-day international XI for the first Victoria Bitter ODI Series clash at the Gabba against Pakistan.

Unfortunately, a persistent neck injury derailed his time in green, gold and teal, but Lynn is hopeful of being fit for the three KFC T20 INTLS against Sri Lanka next month.

Lynn’s BBL|06 tournament began with a blistering 29 from 20 balls against the Adelaide Strikers, an innings that was cut short by a superb catch on the rope by allrounder Kieron Pollard that saved a certain six in addition to capturing the key wicket.

Following the Adelaide appetiser, Lynn delivered a two-part main course when he scored match-winning totals of 85no against the Sydney Thunder and 84no against the Hobart Hurricanes.

A score of 13 came next against the Sydney Sixers before the massacre in Perth where Lynn hit two of his eleven sixes to ice the game at The Furnace.

Abbott was named the KFC BBL|06 Young Gun as the player under the age of 25 with the most votes from the standing umpires.

He finished with 20 wickets in 10 matches with an average of 16.15, a strike rate of 11.1 and a best bowling performance of 5-16 against the Adelaide Strikers.