Brisbane Heat missed chance in loss to Sydney Sixers

The  poor batting display may have charge Brisbane Heat a place in the Big Bash finals, after theBrisbane  Heat lost to the Sydney Sixers by five wickets at the Gabba on Monday .

The Brisbane Heat won the toss and decided  to bat on a hard wicket, but a damaging three over spell period where the home side lost 4 for 13 runs  put the Brisbane Heat on the back foot. Opener Luke Pomersbach was the  top scorer  with 37 runs from  34 balls, but little scores for Dan Christian (2), Chris Lynn (3), Ben Cutting (10) and Chris Hartley (10) kept Brisbane to reduce  9 for 127 runs  in 20 overs.

 The Sydney  Sixers, Steve O'Keefe's slow left arm arthodox deliveries fashioned 3 for 21, while pacemen Josh Hazlewood take 3 for 32  and Luke Feldman got 2 for 26  were also enormously competitive. The Sydney Sixers' Sri Lankan spinner Sechithra Senanayake went wicketless take 0 for 19  but his 1st  11 balls  were dot balls. Brad Haddin (16) started off in a rush with two fours and a six, but he was out on the final  ball of the 3rd  over, bowled by Alister McDermott.

Michael Lumb and Nic Maddinson kept things going for the Sixers, but Maddinson made 17  fell in the eighth over to Christian, and a sharp spell of bowling by Ben Cutting cut the scoring and removed Moises Henriques (12). But Cutting (2 for 9) put in a slow bouncer the next ball which dismissed  Smith (9) to swipe the ball to mid-on. The Sixers were 4 for 99, needing 29 runs from  29 balls.

Tight bowling from Roach and Christian confined the Sixers up and when Hughes top edged to Cutting for 7 off Christian, the Sixers  were 5 for 111 in the 18th over. Lumb smashed 61 off 54 strike the winning boundary with six balls to go, with the Sixers concluding on 5 for 128 with O'Keefe not out on 1. The loss means the Brisbane Heat needs Sydney Thunder to beat Melbourne Stars on Tuesday  and then Brisbane must beat the Hobart Hurricanes on Saturday to reach  for the finals.