Depth key after Perth fall short in pressure moments: BBL|14 review

It's a testament to the strength of the Perth Scorchers that although they didn't produce their best cricket in KFC BBL|14, they were still in the top four until the very last ball of the regular season when they were edged out by the Melbourne Stars.

Again impacted by international selection to several top players, the Scorchers weren't as clinical in the pressure moments as they've been in the past as they blooded several young stars to help transition their list for the future.

At just 21 years of age, rising allrounder Cooper Connolly was the season's standout, sharing the BBL|14 Player of the Tournament award with the Stars' Glenn Maxwell and earning selection in the official Team of the Tournament for the first time.

The club also blooded teenage pace sensation Mahli Beardman, who took three wickets at Optus Stadium in their final game of the season, while 24-year-old left-hander Sam Fanning and 25-year-old leg-spinning allrounder Matthew Spoors got opportunities.

But back-to-back final over losses at home midway through the season ultimately proved fatal to the Scorchers' finals hopes as they missed the playoffs for just the third time in the competition's history.

The Scorchers were in winning positions in both of those matches too, conceding 22 runs off the last seven balls to lose to a depleted Sydney Thunder outfit that had lost Cameron Bancroft and Daniel Sams to concussion mid-match.

They then had the Renegades 4-10 a few days later before Will Sutherland (70 off 45 balls) and Tom Rogers (49no off 31) combined to overhaul the Scorchers' 8-147 with two balls to spare.

Prior to those two matches, the Scorchers had lost just three of their previous 22 matches at Optus Stadium.

Scorchers high performance general manager Kade Harvey said those two losses stood out as sliding doors moments.

"If you pump two wins onto our record then six wins probably gets second or third," he said.

"The margins are fine in T20 cricket and in some of those key moments we just weren't able to execute as well as we historically may have.

"When the Scorchers have been at their best we haven't always blown teams away, we've just been really competitive, stayed in games and executed well the more pressure in the game there was.

"Unfortunately, at key moments this season we weren't able to do it."

Harvey believes those experiences can only be a positive for the newer members of their squad as they seek to build their depth to cover those inevitable losses to higher honours.

"We didn't have Josh Inglis, who's been a really important part of our group, Jhye Richardson went for shoulder surgery and Aaron Hardie wasn't an allrounder until the back end of the tournament," he said.

"They're key players but that's just the nature of the tournament and you've got to build that depth, and you've got to give opportunities to young guys to help cover off all the different things that might eventuate throughout a BBL season.

"We feel like our program is well set up to do that, so we'll continue to focus on those opportunities for those guys."

Season snapshot

BBL|14 result: Fifth (4 wins, 6 losses)

 

Most runs: Cooper Connolly (351 at 50.14)

 

Best strike rate (min. 50 runs): Finn Allen (184.69)

 

Most wickets: Jason Behrendorff (17 at 17.41)

 

Best economy (min. 10 overs): Ashton Agar (5.83)

 

Contracted for BBL|15: Ashton Agar (contracted until BBL|17), Finn Allen (BBL|15), Mahli Beardman (BBL|15), Cooper Connolly (BBL|16), Aaron Hardie (BBL|17), Josh Inglis (BBL|15), Matthew Kelly (BBL|15), Lance Morris (BBL|16), Joel Paris (BBL|15), Jhye Richardson (BBL|16), Ashton Turner (BBL|18)

 

In: Joel Paris (Stars)

 

Out: Jason Behrendorff (Renegades)

 

Uncontracted: Sam Fanning, Nick Hobson, Matthew Hurst, Bryce Jackson, Keaton Jennings, Mitch Marsh, Matthew Spoors, Andrew Tye

International impact

It was a slow start for the Scorchers prized pre-signing Finn Allen, who was dismissed in the first over of the innings in each of their first four games. The powerful New Zealand opener bounced back with consecutive half-centuries against the Strikers and Thunder either side of the new year to finish with 181 runs at a strike rate of 185 from his 10 innings. With Josh Inglis called up to the Test squad for most of the season, Allen also stepped in with the gloves for the second half of the campaign, claiming five catches and a stumping having not kept in a match for almost three years.

The club's other two overseas recruits – Englishmen Matt Hurst and Keaton Jennings – both struggled to adapt to the unique Optus Stadium conditions early in BBL|14 and found themselves on the outer for most of the campaign. Kade Harvey, Scorchers high performance general manager, said while both players "added value" to their group, their impact was less than they'd hoped with Jennings scoring 48 runs at a strike rate of 106 in three matches, while Hurst managed 64 striking at 91 in five matches. Hurst was also drafted to cover for Inglis while on national duties, with his omission leaving Allen to fill in as wicketkeeper.

Season recap with high performance GM Kade Harvey

Close but not quite

"It's ultimately a disappointing season when you don't make finals. Coming off a couple of (title) wins and a finals appearance last year, any time you don't get to the finals is disappointing – that's the overwhelming sense when you've still got a strong group, and you feel at times you've played some good cricket.

"There were opportunities ... we had a lot of games that if we didn't win, we took to the last over. We were in the competition late in the piece and hung on with some pretty friendly results going our way late in the tournament that kept us alive probably a little longer than what we deserved."

Furnace fortress falls

"We feel like the bones of what we do and the way we go about it still stacks up pretty well, but we just lost key games and key moments. We felt after the (December 31) Adelaide game going into two home games that we had a really good chance to set our season up and to lose last over games to the Thunder and Renegades was really disappointing.

"And then when you know you've got to go and play the two Sydney teams (away), we put ourselves under the pump. The Sydney Thunder and the Renegades are games that we would normally close out – historically we've been better in those tight games and unfortunately across the summer we were probably just a little bit off in those key moments in big games and those two home games after the new year, they were big opportunities that cost us in the long run."

Cooper Connolly's consistency

"He's become a really important part of our group relatively quickly for his age. We know what he did a few years ago in a final, but he just continues and hence his national selection opportunities – he's now a multi-format Australian player, which for a young guy who's 21 is a massive credit to him.

"We're certainly really comfortable with where he's at and his ability to play multiple roles in the team. He's obviously really strong for us in the field and with the ball, so he's a really important piece of the puzzle for us and certainly someone we will continue to build around. And when you've got a 21-year-old who can play a pretty senior role and we know we've still got the experienced players around him, that's pretty exciting for the group moving forward."

New blood

"It was certainly nice to be able give (Mahli Beardman) that opportunity. There was probably a chance to bring him in a little bit sooner given he's an exciting young talent – he's been managing some injury issues over the over the last 12 months just with getting his getting his (bowling) loads and his body right.

"We saw in the 50-over games (for WA this month) that he's an exciting player – Cricket Australia took him to England last year, which was a good opportunity for him. We've just got to keep giving him game time and giving him more exposure, but we certainly feel comfortable that he's going to be a piece of our attack moving forward. We'll keep giving him those opportunities in big games and he certainly stepped into that at Optus Stadium at the back end of the tournament."

Biggest improvers

"Nick Hobson showed again that number six and seven spot can be challenging at times, and he continues to learn and work out how to play those roles and develop his game. He played some really important innings for us, particularly early in the tournament.

"Cooper (Connolly) with the ball is one of the things that we'll keep seeing more opportunities presented. The ability to handle the pressure of T20 cricket, he continues to do that with every opportunity he gets with the ball.

"We think Sam Fanning is a good young player and maybe he'll see a bit more opportunity up the top of the order next season. He's showed glimpses (against the Sixers) in Sydney that he's got the game to be aggressive at the top and he's shown enough that he can handle it in the cauldron of Optus Stadium and T20 cricket … to maybe take more opportunities next year."

Looking ahead to BBL|15

List changes

"We went through a process with Jason (Behrendorff), which was over a period of time, but when you look at our list and the amount of international talent and experience that we've got there, it gets harder year on year to keep that group together.

"We've lost Cameron Bancroft in the past and even Kurtis Patterson, when he left, we were keen to keep Kurtis, but our group continues to improve as cricketers and to keep them together gets harder and harder. It was very much working through that process with Jason and understanding of where he was at. Once that became clear, our mind moved with the trade window that there may be an opportunity (to get Joel Paris back) … who was going well at the Stars.

"Joel brings obviously a left-arm option (that we lost with Behrendorff) but he's really good through the different phases of the game. He'll bring a lot for us off field and on field from a leadership perspective, so that's been a really good signing for us, and he knows the environment through state cricket clearly."

Experiencing pressure

"We play in front of 40,000-plus people and it's a high-pressure game, so there's only so much you can do to help them players prepare for it, they've actually got to go out there and experience it and navigate that. That's one of the things that Cooper Connolly has done really well.

"You're trying to always get the blend right between the experienced group that have been there and done it and are comfortable in that space, and then bringing in those young guys at the right time and they get a chance to see what success looks like and see how things are done well, so we'll continue to try and get that balance right."

Squad gaps

"The balance of our bowling line-up – I felt like the back 10 overs in our bowling innings wasn't as clinical as what it used to be – so we'll be continuing to develop that and bringing the right bowlers in that we feel can bowl in that phase of the game and even potentially look at the draft, depending on availability, as an option to bring that skill set in.

"We still feel like we've got the bowling group to do it but that might just be something we look at a little bit differently in the draft. The second spinner role … we know when we go to venues on the east coast that to have a bit of support for Ashton Agar outside of Cooper Connolly and Ashton Turner, that's one we're still looking to develop and find.

"Matthew Spoors played that role this season and he's a developing young player, his batting was certainly very good, but we'll just work through what that looks like again in the draft and see what's around. But I think the core of our group is strong, and there's just a couple of roles there where we will look to build some depth."

BBL|14 season reviews