Confidence growing at Hurricanes

Hobart Hurricanes captain Xavier Doherty was keen to downplay his phenomenal man-of-the-match exploits after leading his ladder-leading outfit to a 14-run victory over the Adelaide Strikers in Wednesday's KFC T20 Big Bash clash at Adelaide Oval.

Doherty collected a career-best 4/17 off his four overs and was the key reason for the inability of the Strikers' batsmen to chase down Hobart's impressive 4/171.

"When you bowl at the death, it's going to go one way or the other and luckily I snuck a few through," he said, modestly.

"It was nice to get the rewards personally."

"It's good to be able to bring myself into the attack when I feel like it."

In this season's BBL, Doherty has taken six wickets at an incredible bowling average of 8.67, while his miserly economy rate of 4.33 runs conceded per over is equally impressive.

Meanwhile, with Travis Birt (149 runs) and Rana Naved (eight wickets) leading the League's run-scoring and wicket-taking tallies respectively, the Hurricanes are firing on all cylinders.

For the second match in succession, a safe and solid foundation followed by a late-innings boundary extravaganza paved the way for Hobart to post a commanding total, which they defended grandly by striking at regular intervals during Adelaide's reply.

"To have 171 on the board, you probably feel you'd win more than you lose," Doherty said.

"As a bowler, you'd love to have that many runs to play with every time."

"Our bowling effort was really good ... had we held our catches we probably could have won by a few more."

"It's become a bit of a plan of ours to really set a foundation (when batting). We probably don't have the superstars at the top to really go hard."

"I'm sure at some stage through this tournament we will get off to a bit of a flier."

"More often than not we've got wickets in hand - that's the main thing."

Having wickets in the shed allowed Hobart's middle-order swatters to tee off against at least one of the Strikers' trio of slow bowlers.

Leg-spinner Bryce McGain was the unfortunate victim, conceding 49 runs from his four overs.

"(Aaron) O'Brien and (Jothan) Botha bowled really well," Doherty said.

"Having wickets in hand, and particularly having a couple of lefties going, gave us the chance to attack the leg-spinner."

"Spin does play a big part in this competition."

The unfancied Hurricanes are now sitting at the top of the BBL ladder with three wins from as many matches and a healthy percentage.

"Winning becomes a bit of a habit and at the moment we're winning," Doherty said.

"Guys are playing with a bit of confidence, which is a massive part of Twenty20."

"At the start of the series, no-one really talked about us because no-one really does talk about Hobart. That's just the way it i and we accept that."