Sixers looking to buck recent trend in finals regroup

Fresh from a hefty defeat at the hands of Perth Scorchers in the Qualifier, Sydney Sixers captain Moises Henriques admits his team is mindful of its performances in recent finals.

The Sixers have finished in the top two after the regular season in their past six BBL campaigns but have only won two titles, and none since 2020-21. They have twice been runners up and twice finished third, and, despite finishing second in BBL|15, find themselves again having to take the scenic route to the final after their loss to the ladder-leading Scorchers.

Henriques said his side's preparation for the finals was factored into its recruiting in the off-season, albeit they still lost key allrounder Sam Curran to international duties this week.

"Absolutely (the team's finals record) gets discussed," Henriques told reporters after the Sixers' loss on Tuesday night.

"We weren't expecting Sam to get picked for England, but this year we moved away from picking guys to get us into the finals to trying to back end our overseas players to make sure we had guys available for the finals.

"We've noticed the trend over the last couple of years is (that) we've lost a lot of players come finals time. We're trying to make sure that we had our most experienced players ready to go at the business end of the season.

"Here we are with a very, strong team, and unfortunately, we just weren't able to get the job done."

The Sixers did all the hard work with the ball early on, restricting the ladder-leading Scorchers to just 9-147 at a run rate of only 7.35.

Only Finn Allen (49) was able to get going as wickets fell at regular intervals, with Ben Dwarshuis (2-23), Jack Edwards (2-25) and Mitchell Starc (2-32) doing the bulk of the damage.

But when the time to chase arrived, the Sixers were found wanting.

Only Steve Smith (37) made it past 15 as the visitors collapsed to 99 all out.

"It's just gutting," Henriques said afterwards.

"When you have such a good first half of the game, you're playing away from home, you've got an opportunity to host a final (up for grabs), and you know you can do so much better than what personally, for me, I know I can do so much better than what I did tonight.

"I'm sure there are plenty of other guys in our sheds feeling the exact same way.

"And now we've got to go the long road back … fly back to Sydney, play again in a couple of days, and then, if we're successful – and that's a big if – we've got to fly back here and then play the next day. It's going to be the tough way to (win) the BBL tournament.

"We are still alive, but opportunities that come around (like) tonight, they just don't come around that often.

"I think Steve showed exactly how good the wicket still was, and obviously how good he is as well, but unfortunately we didn't really have anyone else to go with him."

Henriques has been down this road many times before. He has played more BBL matches than any other in the competition's history, was a member of each of the Sixers' three BBL titles, captaining their triumphs in BBL|09 and BBL|10.

Having won the toss in Perth, he harboured no second thoughts about his decision to bowl first in warm conditions.

"No regrets at all," he said.

"There's a lot of regret over some of the decision-making of some of the batters, but if you walk off here chasing 148 I'll take that every day of the week.

"Because of how well we bowled, the real physical part of the game was over and we just needed to go out there and make some smart decisions and bat with skill.

"One of our batters was able to do that, but the rest of us were not."

The Sixers will now host the winner of tonight's Hobart Hurricanes-Melbourne Stars clash at the SCG on Friday.

BBL|15 finals schedule

Qualifier: Perth Scorchers beat Sydney Sixers by 48 runs

Knockout: Hobart Hurricanes v Melbourne Stars, Ninja Stadium (Wednesday, January 21, 7.30pm AEDT)

Challenger: Sydney Sixers v winner of Knockout, SCG (Friday, January 23, 7.15pm AEDT)

Final: Perth Scorchers v winner of Challenger, Optus Stadium (Sunday, January 25, 7.15pm AEDT)

*A reserve day on Monday, January 26 (7.15pm AEDT) is available for the Final