Brisbane Heat’s skipper tries his best to explain another batting collapse after his side lost 10-36 to lose to the Renegades at the Gabba
'Train wreck': Lynn staggered by latest Heat collapse
Brisbane Heat captain Chris Lynn has labelled his side's batting performance "embarrassing" for the second time in BBL|09 and batter Jimmy Peirson has suggested changes should be made after a stunning capitulation against the Renegades at the Gabba on Sunday night.
The Heat lost a KFC BBL record 10-36 – including seven wickets for just seven runs - after reaching 0-84 inside the Powerplay in pursuit of the bottom-placed Gades' 6-164.
It was the starkest example of the batting problems that have besieged the BBL|02 champs throughout this tournament, and one that even the high-quality additions of AB de Villiers and Joe Burns to the middle order have been unable to resolve.
"We seem to have been in this position a couple of times this year," Lynn said on Channel Seven after making a 15-ball 41 before holing out to long-on.
"I can't really sugarcoat it; it was just a piss-poor effort, another embarrassing effort.
"We got off to a flyer. These guys that are playing, they're not first, they're not second-gamers, they're four, five years into the tournament.
"We're doing all the right things at training, but I don't know what goes on out in the middle because we just seem to panic.
“And then it's not just a wicket or two, it's a train wreck.
"Something's got to change. But our preparation has been awesome – you can't fault that.
"I don't know what goes through our guys' heads. We had our strategic timeout, we had our plans in place – not to play dumb cricket, knock it round, hit the guys in the deep, no run-outs.
“I'm pretty speechless."
Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting was also critical of the Heat’s performance, while former Heat captain Brendon McCullum said in commentary on Channel Seven: "You cannot cater for, and you cannot coach stupidity".
Disappointed with the Brisbane Heat batting tonight, these collapses happen all too often and it's not good enough particularly from their senior players. Something has to change with their batting and I'm looking forward to being at the Gabba on Thursday to see what does. #BBL09— Ricky Ponting AO (@RickyPonting) January 19, 2020
Peirson, who was one of four Heat players to register a duck, was equally at a loss to explain the recurring theme of collapses; just two days ago on a flat Adelaide Oval track they were bowled out for 100, while in other run chases in this tournament they have lost 7-51 (against the Scorchers), 7-75 (Stars), and 7-76 (Thunder).
"It's becoming a bit of a habit," Peirson conceded to cricket.com.au.
"We get ourselves in situations where it's 50-50 and more often than not we're finding ourselves on the wrong side of the ledger.
"This is probably as bad as it's felt, this one – we shouldn't have lost this game.
"A couple of silly mistakes at key moments and it slips away. Momentum is a funny thing in this league. You can get on a roll and win a few games, but you can get on a roll and find ways to lose games as well.
"It seems like we're doing that at the moment and we need to have a good, hard look at ourselves and come back here against the Sixers (on Thursday) and find a way to win these last couple of games.
"This one, and our first game of the season against the Thunder, we should've won that, so there's a couple of games we should've won.
"But we're finding ways not to win. When we're on, we're fantastic and we score 200. But it's those games in between (that are a problem).
"It's a long tournament so you've got to find a way to win ugly sometimes. We did it once here a couple of games ago (against the Hurricanes), we just haven't done it since. So it's really disappointing."
The Heat will welcome the return of Test and ODI middle-order star Marnus Labuschagne in their next match, against the Sixers at the Gabba on Thursday, and Peirson believes the injection of the energetic right-hander is exactly what the team needs.
Labuschagne's return will force an interesting selection call, with either a reshuffle in team balance to accommodate an extra batsman and rely on his part-time leg-spin, or perhaps opener Sam Heazlett or Test batsman Burns to miss out.
"The number three Test batter in the world – his batting has gone to a whole new level this year, I've seen that with Queensland and obviously he's done it for Australia as well," Peirson said of Labuschagne.
"So he adds a lot of stability to the middle order, he bowls as well and he's a gun fielder.
"There's a tough call that has to be made – who that is (that misses out), we'll see – but changes do need to happen I think to get this team playing the way we need to be playing."