Kuhnemann reveals O'Keefe's unwitting role in Sixers' demise

Matt Kuhnemann has watched hours and hours of Steve O'Keefe bowling across his journey but perhaps none were more crucial than the footage he watched in the days leading up to the KFC BBL|12 Challenger final.

Having idolised O'Keefe, who has been one of the nation's best left-arm spinners for a decade, Kuhnemann spent time bowling with the veteran tweaker at the nets in Manly last off-season in the lead up to his Australia A and one-day international debut in Sri Lanka last year.

He also sought out the 38-year-old last October when Queensland visited Drummoyne Oval in Sydney for a Marsh Sheffield Shield match that O'Keefe was commentating on, and while he wasn't afforded that same luxury ahead of last night's head-to-head battle, the Brisbane Heat spinner revealed post-match he had closely monitored his mentor's tactics at the SCG in BBL|12.

"I watch 'SOK' (O'Keefe) a lot, he's one of my favourite cricketers, if not my favourite," Kuhnemann told cricket.com.au following the Heat's tense four-wicket win over the Sixers.

"I knew I'd probably have to take more wickets and be a bit braver with how I bowled here.

"I watched how 'SOK' has been bowling here the last couple of seasons and just copied him a little bit.

"That was a little bit slower to the lefties and then a bit faster and cross seam stuff to the right-handers."

And it worked a treat for the 26-year-old, claiming the crucial top-order wickets of Sixers captain Moises Henriques, Josh Philippe and Daniel Hughes in a career-best T20 spell of 3-17.

It helped the Heat restrict the Sixers to 9-116 from the 20 overs before Michael Neser delivered a clutch innings with the bat as Brisbane upset Sydney without their Test stars Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Matthew Renshaw and leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson to progress to their second BBL decider.

Kuhnemann then hung around in front of the Sixers race after to game to grab a chat with his idol, this time getting some tips on how to bowl in Perth where the Heat will now face a formidable Scorchers outfit on Saturday afternoon.

"It's notoriously not a great place to bowl spin," Kuhnemann said.

"I'll probably have to change a lot. I'll go back and watch a lot of the games this year, how Ash Agar bowls, he's had some success and watch how 'SOK' played last time."

Kuhnemann may have helped end O'Keefe and the Sixers' season, but he'll still have a chance to cross paths with him again in next summer with the veteran re-signing for a 13th BBL campaign.

"He's (O'Keefe) so good at what he does, and he's probably been the best spinner in the competition this season," he said.

"He was really good when I went to Sri Lanka and just talking about bowling conditions there.

"And then I got him when the Shield game was on at Drummoyne … we talked about everything, white-ball, red-ball one-day cricket and that was for a couple of days so that was awesome.

"He's been great with me and with all the other spinners as well, just his knowledge of the game is really good."