Cutting crashes into exclusive BBL club

He finished up on the losing team but Ben Cutting still had reason to smile following the first-ever KFC BBL clash on the Gold Coast, notching up a long-awaited milestone and joining an exclusive club in the process.

Allrounder Cutting's 53 matches for Brisbane Heat is a record for the club, but it took until Saturday night against Hobart Hurricanes for the 31-year-old to strike his maiden half-century in the tournament.

And with five sixes in his 32-ball 58, he became just the seventh player to hit 50 sixes in the brief history of the Big Bash.

"I'm feeling good with the bat and the ball, but I'd trade everything I did tonight for a win, just to go one (win) and one (loss) into the break," Cutting said.

"None from two is never a good start leading into the Christmas break. But we've got a week or so now before we're back down here again. We've learnt a few things and hopefully we're better for the first two runs."

Cutting retired from first-class cricket in April to become a T20 journeyman, and through 2018 he has plied his trade in the lucrative Indian Premier League as well as the Caribbean Premier League and Afghanistan Premier League.

"I'm enjoying it," he said of the T20 lifestyle. "It means a lot more time on the road, but I get to play a lot more cricket and focus on one format rather than three."

It was in Afghanistan in October that Cutting hit his first-ever T20 half-century – a blazing 71 from 39 balls that included six sixes – and the strong form with the bat looks to have carried over into the BBL, where he is playing in the key allrounder role at six for the Heat.

"I really enjoy batting at six," he said. "The first couple of Big Bashes (tournaments) it was only really the last three or four overs that I went into bat, so it took a bit of adjusting, but I feel fairly comfortable there now."

Cutting took 0-27 from four overs to go with his 1-22 from three in the Heat's season opener, and he says the improved economy from BBL|07, when he went for 9.97 runs per over, is down to some careful consideration in the off-season.

"I really had to revamp my bowling after last year's Big Bash and change a few things, and change my plans," he said.

"So far, so good.

"A lot of my plans were just hitting the wicket and keeping it simple, and that suited me when I bowled 140kph, but now I'm late 120s, maybe 130.

"So I had to change my plans – bowl a lot more slower balls, a lot of yorkers, and try to be a little bit more wily."

The Heat return to the Gold Coast for their next game, a day clash against Sydney Sixers on January 1.