Top 20 in 2020: Biggest BBL moments, No.1

Big sixes, great catches and thrilling finishes - the first nine seasons of the KFC Big Bash League has had all that and much, much more.

Top 20 Biggest BBL Moments: 20-18 | 17-15 | 14-12 | 11-9 | 8-6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2

To mark the competition's 10th season this summer, we've counted down 20 of the biggest moments from the competition's history, be they good, bad or just downright bizarre.

Today we reveal our No.1 moment and you can re-live our Top 20 in full through the links above.

1) Travis Head's champagne moment on NYE

Adelaide Strikers v Sydney Sixers, Adelaide, BBL|05

Image Id: 8C30CCC0AC7D4869AAA6D0D2151F9436

By Andrew Ramsey

Even though he was little more than a spectator in its prior iterations, Travis Head understood acutely the significance of the BBL's New Year's Eve fixture to the Adelaide Strikers and to their fanatical fan base.

An avid supporter of Port Adelaide in the Australian Football League, Head had been struck by the similarities in crowd turn-out for the regular 'Showdown' matches against Port's home-town rivals Adelaide Crows and the fervour generated by the BBL's end-of-year showpiece.

"We'd seen over the (preceding two years) the massive crowds that came along to the New Year's Eve games and they were fantastic nights, so it's something the Strikers held very dearly," Head told cricket.com.au recently.

"But we also knew that to keep it at Adelaide Oval as a regular event, with other places wanting to host that New Year's game, that if we played a bad game and got badly beaten there was the chance we might lose it from the calendar."

If the pressure to perform in their third NYE clash in BBL|05 – Strikers had won easily the previous two against Perth Scorchers and Hobart Hurricanes – wasn't sufficiently heavy, Head went to the wicket for the first time in the short history of the marquee fixture with his team in strife.

Set a daunting target of 177 after a breezy sixth-wicket partnership between veteran Sydney Sixers pair Brad Haddin (54no from 35 balls) and Johan Botha (38no from 20), the home team hit early trouble.

Big-hitting opener Craig Simmons was soon followed back to the dug-out by Sri Lanka champion Mahela Jayawardena, and the crowd of more than 46,000 hushed noticeably as Head – who had turned 22 just two days earlier – joined keeper Tim Ludeman in the sixth over.

He had scored seven when Ludeman was dismissed trying to launch Sean Abbott over the leg-side fence, a boundary foreshortened due to the pitch's placement on the eastern edge of Adelaide Oval's expansive wicket block.

With 111 runs required from 69 deliveries at that point, the future Australia Test and limited-overs representative - who had averaged 24 from his previous 14 BBL innings - might have been tempted to panic.

Image Id: C5B6608910414DC2BB60364E03A239DB Image Caption: Head launched a solo rescue mission // Getty

But instead he found reassurance from the Strikers then-skipper Brad Hodge, at the opposite end of his lengthy career, who encouraged his young partner to "keep knocking it around for him (Hodge) to make the running, and hopefully we'd both still be there at the end".

When Hodge and Alex Ross fell in consecutive overs from Sixers seamer Ben Dwarshuis, the situation became critical with the equation reading 54 needed from 21 balls with England leg spinner Adil Rashid the last remaining Striker holding any batting credentials.

"It was backs-to-the-wall at that stage … a pretty tall order," Head recalled.

"Everyone in the ground probably thought it was too much because it had been quite difficult to get any momentum through the innings.

"But I knew Rash (Rashid) could bat – we played together at Yorkshire and he's got first-class hundreds, plus he hits the ball in unusual areas.

Image Id: 47556F31BC0546B89AC818A05A29ADC9 Image Caption: Rashid helped steer Head to the finish line // Getty

"So we came up with a plan that I'd take most of the balls given we needed to score at a really high rate and with him only new to the wicket.

"And if I got off strike, he would get me back up to the striker's end knowing that I had to clear the fence a few times if we had any hope.

"Of course, that's not how the plan ended up working."

Rather than knocking timely singles to maximise Head's crisp ball-striking, Rashid faced just one delivery of the final three and half overs – from which he scored two.

However, Head had found his range by that stage and, while acknowledging the short eastern boundary suited his strong leg-side game, it was a six over extra-cover off left-arm quick Doug Bollinger in the penultimate over that convinced him it was to be his night.

Image Id: 23AADECB45D149788EABE1682FFBAE9F Image Caption: Head launched a late boundary assault // AAP

"I don't think I'd hit one over covers in my life at that stage of my career, and especially off Dougie who I found one of the hardest blokes to play in my early days of professional cricket," Head said.

"So that was one I was most proud of.

"Yeah, it was targetting the short side but getting someone who I found ridiculously hard to get away over the years - and even harder in T20 cricket – I guess it just shows what you can do when you have to score in a hurry."

By that stage, Head had surged to 78 from 47 balls having bludgeoned three leg-side sixes and a couple of boundaries from Abbott's preceding over to reduce the target 24 from the final 12 deliveries as the crowd roared into early new-year partying.

When Abbott began the last over of 2015, Head was 83 not out and his team 13 runs shy of an improbable win.

The first ball was an attempted yorker that missed its mark and landed four rows beyond the mid-wicket fence; the next a slow off-cutter that dropped short and finished a dozen rows further back in the same section of seating.

Image Id: 80022E2B833542FD97F8846B35F334A2 Image Caption: The Strikers brought in the new year in fine style // Getty

With scores tied and four deliveries remaining, Head could have gently knocked Abbott's third delivery into any gap to upstage the impending fireworks.

However, he was also coursing with adrenaline and five runs from a maiden BBL century.

"It wasn't until that last ball that Boats (his former SA captain, Botha) brought everyone up in the field," Head said.

"The way I was striking them, I thought the best way was to try and hit it as hard as I could again.

"He brought everyone up in the ring, so I thought if I could get it up and over the top – it's a bonus if it goes over the fence, but even if it doesn't we win the game of cricket.

"It was a long way over my head and I think if I'd left it, it would have been called a wide.

"But I just thought 'I'll have a dip at it' and it happened to work out."

Image Id: 76D2FDA4A1A94A778DBEAC1D15384680 Image Caption: Head soaks in his moment // Getty

He concedes he "didn't get all of it" as he jumped in the air and swatted hopefully at the bouncer that ballooned above him, but he made sufficient contact for the ball to clear the rope as an already remarkable evening was framed for perpetuity.

"Lucky the boundary was about 25 metres away," he laughs, recalling that now-famous blow.

"I'm fortunate we were playing on one side of the wicket block at Adelaide Oval, and I'm under no illusion I was playing at the MCG or anything like that.

"I guess the thing I'm most proud of is that I was able to contribute to a great game, and to a winning game.

"It's definitely a time of year that I love in Adelaide, to be able to play in front of my friends and family and on what I think is one of the best grounds in the world, especially when there's a full house.

"It's pretty special."

Top 20 Biggest BBL Moments (so far)

20) BBL makes bloody big impact

19) Bob Quiney and the seagull

18) Dan Christian hits the roof

17) Zampa uses his head to get a wicket

16) Peter Handscomb arrives

15) Lynn hits five sixes in a row

14) Magician Malinga takes six of the best

13) Gayle equals world record for fastest fifty

12) Warne commentates McCullum’s wicket

11) McDermott's miracle under the roof

10) Morgan's last-ball fairytale

9) Warne v Samuels adds fire to the BBL

8) Laughlin & Weatherald's stunning double act

7) The leave that stopped the nation

6) Jordan Silk's Gabba stunner

5) Lynn hits Tait out of the Gabba

4) Record crowd packs out the MCG

3) Stars stumble to gift Renegades the title

2) Lee falls just short of perfect farewell

1) Travis Head's champagne moment on NYE