Archer heroics seal thrilling 'Canes win

The score: Hobart Hurricanes 5-183 (Short 96, Doolan 29; Rashid 2-18) defeated Adelaide Strikers 6-176 (Ingram 66, Head 44; Archer 3-15) by seven wickets

Match in a tweet:  Hurricanes win! A stunning final over from Archer seals a thrilling victory #BBL07

The hero: Jofra Archer, what a star! The quick from the Caribbean picked up the big wicket of Strikers opener Alex Carey with his first over. Then when Travis Head and Colin Ingram were on a roll, he broke their 102-run stand when he had the Adelaide captain top-edging a full toss to cover. Just 10 runs came from his first three overs and even when he wasn’t bowling, he was still in the thick of the action, joining with Short in an acrobatic, relayed boundary-line catch to end the dangerous Colin Ingram’s innings on 66.

Thrown the ball for the final over with the Hurricanes needing 13 runs, he trapped Jake Lehmann lbw first ball. He beat the bat of Michael Neser with his second – and the attempted sneaky bye resulted in a run out – before a top edge fell safely for two. A single, a dot and victory was secured. Four overs, three wickets, 15 runs. What a performance!

The support act: Another blazing knock from rising Hurricanes star D’Arcy Short led the Hurricanes to a hefty total. Short and Alex Doolan got the Hurricanes off to a flier, taking 13 off the first over and they piled on 60 from the first eight before Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan sent Doolan on his way. Short carried on unabated, bringing up his half-century from 37 deliveries, then put a ball on the roof. He was seemingly charging towards a BBL century, only to be caught on 96 off the bowling of Billy Stanlake – his second dismissal in the nineties in the space of three days, after he scored 97 against the Thunder at the same venue on New Year’s Day. While he again fell short of three figures, his entertaining 58-ball onslaught featured four maximums and nine boundaries.

The consolation effort: Colin Ingram's first three knocks in the BBL yielded scores of 15, 15 and 23. The man known as the Bulldozer had yet to show Australian fans what he's capable of when he headed to Hobart, but it didn't take the South African long to show why the Strikers signed him on for BBL|07. His sent the second ball he faced to the boundary and moved to 25 from 21 before launching in the 10th over of the chase. Ingram smacked back-to-back sixes off Simon Milenko and brought out the party tricks to reach fifty from 33 balls.

Ingram kept the Strikers in the chase but couldn’t see it through to the finish, dismissed for 66 (44) in the 17th over.

The huge hits: The Strikers certainly weren’t catching them and neither was the crowd! First McDermott put the ball on the roof, then Short sent the umpires racing for yet another new ball with his own monster effort.

The stat: Short joined a small club of players to be dismissed in the nineties in consecutive T20 innings when he departed for 96. He joins Unmukt Chand, Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle and Sam Northeast.

The silly point: Gus the Goose has returned to Network Ten’s coverage this season, much to the delight of his fellow commentators and BBL fans. And as the season wears on, it seems Gus isn’t afraid to throw shade at some of the legends of the game…

The fantasy wrap: The Hurricanes innings was all about D’Arcy Short ($77,600) so it’s hardly surprising he also raked in the Fantasy points, scoring 138. Jofra Archer ($92,200) heroics earned him 93 points, while Adelaide’s Colin Ingram was rewarded for his big knock with 86.

The next stops: The Strikers have lost their first game of BBL|07 and now head to Sydney to take on the Thunder on Sunday. The Hurricanes, meanwhile, will aim to make it three from three when they host the winless Sydney Sixers on Monday.

Image Id: 41E8FEDBE459481483607C34283E7732