Top 20 in 2020: Biggest BBL moments, No.2

Big sixes, great catches and thrilling finishes – the first nine seasons of the KFC Big Bash League has had all that and much, much more.

Top 20 Biggest BBL Moments: 20-18 | 17-15 | 14-12 | 11-9 | 8-6 | 5 | 4 | 3

To mark the competition's 10th season this summer, we're counting down 20 of the biggest moments from the competition's history, be they good, bad or just downright bizarre.

We continue today with No.2 in the countdown and will reveal our No.1 moment tomorrow.

2) Lee falls just short of perfect farewell

Perth Scorchers v Sydney Sixers, Canberra, BBL|04

Image Id: 4EA69A7FD3FD4C24B3EE57432A4F93E0

By Martin Smith

Brett Lee is crouched on one knee, his right arm resting across his leg, his head buried into crook of his left elbow.

Immediately to his right, Moises Henriques is hunched over, his head down, hands braced on his knees, a set of broken stumps standing within touching distance of both men.

This is not how it was supposed to end.

Lee, in the final act of a decorated 20-year career, was mere centimetres away from going out the way champions deserve to – on the winning side.

But in the moments immediately following the final delivery of his career, Lee's mind raced back to an iconic moment a decade earlier, and quickly pushed aside any overwhelming sense of self-pity.

Image Id: 044EA6FF535E477BA83673E9B39DA5CA Image Caption: An iconic Ashes moment // Getty

"I was shocked that we'd lost, I was disappointed, I was excited that we'd come so close ... so I had all the emotions floating around in my head," Lee remembered a year later.

"(I went) back to Andrew Flintoff in 2005 when I was down on one knee, they'd won and he came over straight away and shook hands.

"I thought, 'You know what, this is about sportsmanship, this is about playing the game, and you can't always win'.

"It was a fantastic game so I went up straight away and shook hands and said 'well done'."

***

The chaotic final delivery of BBL|04 was befitting of a tournament decider that see-sawed from one side to the other throughout 40 engrossing overs of cricket.

The Perth Scorchers, the defending champions, had dominated the early stages by taking four wickets inside the first 10 overs, before Henriques (77 from 57 balls) steered the Sixers to a competitive total of 5-147.

With runs on the board in a high-pressure final, the momentum was back with the Sixers.

But as they had done for much of the previous two seasons, Shaun Marsh and Michael Klinger got the Scorchers off to a strong start, keeping the required run rate in check for 11 overs until Lee, who had conceded just a single from the opening over, returned to the attack and made the crucial strike, dismissing Klinger for 33.

From there, the required rate climbed up to more than 11 an over with four overs remaining, with Marsh seemingly the only man standing between the Sixers and another BBL title.

The turning point came at the start of the 18th over when Lee returned and was no-balled for having just three men inside the circle.

Doug Bollinger was the culprit, and Marsh faced a wide before capitalising on the free hit with a six. With two taken from the initial no-ball, the Scorchers had effectively taken 10 from one Lee delivery, reducing the equation from 32 needed off 18 to a much more manageable 22 off 17.

But there were to be more twists to come. Henriques gambled on giving Nathan Lyon the penultimate over and he delivered by having Marsh and then Ashton Turner caught in the deep in the space of three balls before Nathan Coulter-Nile landed a telling six from the final delivery, leaving eight to win from the last.

And after Michael Carberry went 4, 2, 1 from the first three deliveries of Lee's final over – including an audacious ramp shot that went to the boundary – the scores were tied and the Scorchers needed just a single run from the final three deliveries to win the title.

But the highest drama was yet to come.

Lee first knocked over Coulter-Nile to send the crowd wild with his trademark chainsaw celebration and next ball, incredibly, he repeated the dose, clean bowling Sam Whiteman to suddenly raise the possibility of a Super Over.

Image Id: E26260B91FCF42CDA0497E5FB0539DC7 Image Caption: The Brett Lee chainsaw came out one final time // Getty

The 38-year-old was on a hat-trick and Pakistani import Yasir Arafat was on strike with one delivery remaining in the match, the tournament, and Lee's career.

Unless, of course, the legendary quick could force a Super Over.

Of the more than 40,000 balls Lee had bowled in the two decades prior, it's unlikely he would have set a field quite like this one. Three short covers crouched down in front of extra cover and a wide mid-off while on the leg side, the Sixers employed a short mid-on, a short square leg and two men a little deeper at mid-wicket and wide mid-on.

From a Sixers' point of view, almost everything about that final ball went perfectly. Lee delivered another pinpoint yorker that Arafat could only squirt into the on side, straight to Michael Lumb at that deep mid-wicket position.

As both batters set off for a suicidal (but necessary) single, Lumb flung the ball towards the stumps at the non-striker's end as Henriques moved in to gather and finish the job.

But as Lee scurried back towards the stumps for what should have been a moment of triumph, the ball slipped from the grasp of Henriques and bounced away as the skipper broke the stumps with his hands, with Arafat miles short of his ground.

The moment was missed, the winning run was scored, and Lee slumped to his knees.

Image Id: CE4D3217C865498CAD7B7590CE05306A Image Caption: The Scorchers celebrate another title // Getty

But just as quickly as the match ended, Lee jumped to his feet to console his teammates, congratulate the victors and take his final bow of an extraordinary career.

"No one means to make a mistake," he said. "No one means to drop a catch. I could have bowled a no ball and it would have been in my head.

"But it's cricket. That's the reason you play this great game."

Return to cricket.com.au tomorrow as we conclude our countdown of the most memorable moments in BBL history

Top 20 Biggest BBL Moments (so far)

20) BBL makes bloody big impact

19) Bob Quiney and the seagull

18) Dan Christian hits the roof

17) Zampa uses his head to get a wicket

16) Peter Handscomb arrives

15) Lynn hits five sixes in a row

14) Magician Malinga takes six of the best

13) Gayle equals world record for fastest fifty

12) Warne commentates McCullum's wicket

11) McDermott's miracle under the roof

10) Morgan's last-ball fairytale

9) Warne v Samuels adds fire to the BBL

8) Laughlin & Weatherald's stunning double act

7) The leave that stopped the nation

6) Jordan Silk's Gabba stunner

5) Lynn hits Tait out of the Gabba

4) Record crowd packs out the MCG

3) Stars stumble to gift Renegades the title

2) Lee falls just short of perfect farewell