KFC BBL|12
After setting the Sydney Thunder 204 for victory, the Brisbane Heat emerged victorious from a rain-affected Eliminator at Showgrounds Stadium, with the rain cutting short a potentially match-winning David Warner knock
Jack Paynter at Showground Stadium
27 January 2023, 10:30 PM AEST
@jackpayn
Almost a year after departing the Sydney Thunder, Usman Khawaja has returned to western Sydney for the first time to knock his old side out of KFC BBL|12.
Khawaja smashed an incredible 94 from 55 balls as he and Australian teammate Marnus Labuschagne blitzed an undermanned Thunder attack to all corners of Sydney Showground Stadium in the BBL|12 Eliminator.
The pair put on 128 for the second wicket after being asked to bat first, lifting the Brisbane Heat to 5-203 from their 20 overs – the highest BBL total of all-time at the venue where the average score batting first this season before tonight was just 126.
In the end it was an anti-climactic finish to what promised to be a blockbuster chase as rain thwarted the Thunder's pursuit of 204 after 6.5 overs just as David Warner appeared to have rediscovered his best T20 form.
The Thunder were 1-52 at that point and eight runs behind the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern par score of 60.
Play was then set to resume after a 47-minute delay with the Thunder requiring 38 runs from 13 balls before the rain returned and with players unable to return to the field, the Heat emerged victorious and progressed to face the Melbourne Renegades in the Knockout at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.
Warner finished 36 not out from 20 balls with five boundaries, with Jason Sangha also unbeaten on nine.
Earlier, it was a measured start by Khawaja, who announced a release from his Thunder contract last February to play closer to home in Brisbane, as the Heat progressed at just over six runs per over for the first half of the innings.
The Test opener smacked Thunder debutant Ross Pawson for 17 immediately after the drinks break, hitting two sixes and bringing up his 11th BBL half century – and first for his new club – from 38 balls.
In the 10 deliveries Pawson – who replaced injured quick Gurinder Sandhu after spending the day at work as the Head of Athletic Development at St Augustine's College – bowled to Khawaja, the right-armer conceded 28 runs in a tough initiation to professional cricket.
Chris Green and Usman Qadir then copped the treatment with 15 coming from both the 12th and 13th overs as the Heat put on 71 runs in the five overs following the break.
Khawaja's 360-degree stroke play was on full display as he went from 86 to 94 with two incredible reverse scoops to the boundary off Ben Cutting.
That's where his knock would end, edging behind two balls later, out for his fourth highest T20 score but with his job well and truly done.
"You're looking at the run rate more than anything (in T20 cricket), it's completely different in Test cricket because you've got all the time in the world so if you get out in the nineties it's usually your own fault," he said on the Channel 7 broadcast following his innings.
"In T20 cricket, you're just looking (at) 'what score do we need, what am I trying to do this ball', and if you get the milestones along the way, it's just a bonus."
After playing his role by feeding the strike to Khawaja throughout their partnership, Labuschagne expanded after his departure, bringing up his maiden BBL fifty from 39 deliveries with a heave to the mid-wicket fence.
The pair's other Test teammate, Matthew Renshaw, then exploded in the final overs with 24 from just eight balls, including a sequence of 6, 6, 4, 6 as leg-spinner Qadir finished with 0-50 from his four overs.
Labuschagne also hit two sixes in a 17-run final over before he was out on the second last delivery of the innings for 73 (48).
It was a tough night for all of the Thunder bowlers apart from skipper Green who led from the front with 2-29 from his four overs.
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