Heat fail to fire as season burns out

In the end, it was the season that never quite got going for Brisbane Heat.

A pre-season that had been buoyed by the long-term re-signing of superstar Chris Lynn, and a promising top-four finish in BBL|06 pointed towards greater success across the 2017-18 summer.

Throw in twin Pakistani spin additions Shadab Khan and Yasir Shah, and Daniel Vettori had assembled a squad that many believed were capable of challenging for the title.

And after four wins from six, including a resounding 49-run triumph over defending champions Perth Scorchers, the optimism appeared well founded.

Whether it was coincidence or otherwise, that victory proved an unfortunate turning point for both the Heat and Lynn (when it comes to the Big Bash, it's difficult to mention one without the other); the club didn't win any of their four remaining matches, while their powerhouse opener strained a calf muscle and wasn't seen again until the final night of the season.

Even going into the ultimate evening of the regular season, it could have been different. In fact, a victory for Melbourne Stars in the early match meant a win would have been sufficient to catapult the Heat from seventh into the top four.

Against the Renegades however, they couldn't muster anything close to their best, slipping to a 26-run defeat to crash out of the tournament.

"Obviously (it's) very disappointing," was how Lynn described the Heat's campaign in the immediate aftermath.

"We had good momentum early in the competition; traditionally we're really slow starters. I think we lost our last four games, which is the disappointing part.

"We had a lot of interruptions with injuries and you can't control that, but we had to be better.

"Tonight we leaked 20 runs too many with the ball. That gave them momentum into our batting innings and it just stemmed from there.

"We're a much better side than what we showed tonight.

"Losing four in a row isn't good enough – you're not going to make the semis with that and we didn't when we had a great opportunity."

Lynn pointed to dropped catches and inconsistent performances with the bat as recurring problems throughout BBL|07. And while both were indeed problematic, the numbers suggest the key issue was perhaps expensive and ineffective fast bowling.

While leg-spinning trio Mitchell Swepson, Shadab and Yasir combined for 16 wickets (one every 28 balls) and conceded just 6.85 runs per over, the five fast bowlers used by the Heat went for 9.78 runs per over (while collecting wickets at the slightly better strike rate of every 20 balls).

Combined, only last-placed Melbourne Stars (46) took fewer than the Heat's 49 wickets throughout the tournament.

Throw in hamstring and calf injuries to Lynn, which restricted the tournament's most dangerous batsman to just five games, as well as a groin injury to in-form middle-order batsman Joe Burns, and the pieces of the puzzle that was the Heat's end-of-season fade-away begin to fall into place.

"He was smacking them as well," Lynn said of Burns' untimely absence, after the right-hander had excelled with 201 runs at a strike-rate of 142.55 in seven outings.

"I have no doubt he would've been on that South Africa tour and in the Aussie T20s (if he'd been fit).

"The ability he showed to go through Shield cricket into Big Bash – he's a serious player. Hopefully he comes good and we can both be in the green and gold."

Burns and Lynn are both core members of a Heat squad that will reunite once again in around 10 months' time, when they'll be desperate to make improvements on a season that promised plenty but ultimately delivered nothing.

"When we do play good cricket, we win, and when we play great, we blow teams off the park," Lynn added. "We've got that X-factor, but there was no X-factor tonight."

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