Perth scorch Sixers en route to fourth BBL title.

It turned out nothing could stop the Scorchers in their most difficult season in history.

Written by Lachlan Sherriff.

It's been fifty-one days and counting since the Scorchers were last in Perth. They only got to play one home game. They were away from family and friends. They had to spend Christmas and New Years in a hotel room.

It turns out none of that could stop them from getting their hands on the Holy Grail.

After clinching the first seed guaranteed the Scorchers would play all their finals matches in their temporary home of Marvel Stadium, the Scorchers booked their place in the final with a 49 runs win against the Sydney Sixers. They played their next match six days later, again at Marvel Stadium and yep, again against the Sixers. Now the Sixers had every reason to be confident going into this match. They were the reigning champions after all, and had also won in 2020. A win tonight would seal the three peat. But Perth could also be confident knowing that they had beaten the Sixers three times in the season already.

The match started off poorly for Perth. Kurtis Patterson fell after just ten balls into the game, Josh Inglis went at the start of the fourth over (and it could've been sooner if not for a terrible dropped catch by Sean Abbott), and Mitch Marsh and Colin Munro both went out in the fifth over to the excellent spin bowling of Nathan Lyon. The Scorchers needed a response from the middle order, and it came out of Ashton Turner and to-be man of the match Laurie Evans. Turner made 54 before eventually being caught by Daniel Hughes, and Laurie Evans made 76 at the crease and didn't leave until the end of the innings. The heroics from Turner and Evans was enough to give the Scorchers a respectable 6/171 and get them back in the game.

Maybe the Sixers were shell shocked by the Scorchers taking the game back in control, or maybe it just wasn't there night, but they never got going. It started with the openers, with Hayden Kerr going out on two and Nicholas Bertus getting caught on thirteen. First drop Daniel Hughes tried his hardest with a score of 42, but was let down by his teammates efforts. Aside from Jay Lenton who made ten, no other player would hit double digets for Sydney. The bowling attack of Andrew Tye was once again on show, with the fast bowler taking 3/15, his first to dismiss Dan Christian with a brilliant catch in the outfield from Kurtis Patterson. Tye then went 2/2 on his final over to dismiss Ben Dwairshuis and Sean Abbott and put the final nail in the coffin. The Sixers only lasted another fourteen balls at the end of Tye's over, with Steve O'Keefe the final man to fall for the helpless Sixers. The Scorchers won their fourth Championship by 79 runs, in what might go down as the craziest season ever for the boys in orange, who can now call themselves BBL11 Champions.

Above: Elated Scorchers celebrate after Steve O'Keefe's dismissal confirmed their championship - the fourth in the franchise's history