Strikers derail Hurricanes, advance to face Thunder

Test wicketkeeper Alex Carey has slotted straight back into white-ball cricket as he powered the Adelaide Strikers into the final four of KFC BBL|11 with their fifth straight win.

Two days after being smashed for a domestic T20 record score, the Hurricanes were again on the back foot from the outset as the left-hander and Matt Short put on a superb 145-run opening stand after electing to bat first at the MCG on Friday night.

Carey returned the Strikers line-up for his first Big Bash game of the summer after Australia's 4-0 Ashes triumph and immediately showed the prowess that saw him elevated to the Test team with two boundaries from his first four balls.

The 30-year-old, who has kept to Scott Boland for the past month, signalled his intent from just the second ball of the match with a little shimmy down the wicket to crunch him straight past mid-off to the boundary.

Tom Rogers, the tournament's seventh highest wicket taker, summed up the start for the Hurricanes when he dropped Short on the last ball of the Powerplay as the Strikers rushed to 0-44 from four overs.

Rogers had just conceded 18 runs from his first over when he spilled a simple high ball at mid-off that only made it as far as the inner fielding circle, with captain Matthew Wade struggling to hide his frustration as he watched on from just metres away.

It got worse for the Hurricanes when Boland dropped Carey off Riley Meredith (2-37) three overs later before Wil Parker spilled another one, albeit a tough chance that the left-hander hit hard straight back at him.

Parker then took a remarkable diving catch running back with the flight on the boundary only to slide into the rope with the ball still in his hand, with the umpires awarding six to Short.

Sloppy fielding continued to gift the Strikers runs before Boland (1-32) returned to break through for the Hurricanes, ending the Strikers highest partnership of the tournament by removing Carey for 67 off 45 balls.

Despite walking at his Test teammate second ball, Carey said it wasn't a preconceived idea to target Boland.

"Knowing that he lands the ball where it wants to and normally on a pretty hard length, getting down the track and trying to make it in my favour a little bit more (was the idea) rather than letting him hit a tough length," he told cricket.com.au after the match.

"Shorty also put pressure on the other end and made my night a little bit easier as well.

"He's had an amazing summer. It's been awesome to keep to him, then I got out to him tonight, so that's OK, he's the best bowler in the world at the moment."

Carey said it was mainly a mindset shift switching between the Test and T20 formats.

"There's not too much you need to worry about shifting, we had a good hit out yesterday in the nets," he said.

"It is something that we do a lot now and it's also great fun to put the foot down a little bit and free the arm."

Short, who is having a breakout season with 448 runs to move up to third on the BBL|11 top scorers list, dispatched the young leg-spinner for back-to-back sixes before departing in the same over for 89 (48), his highest score in T20 cricket.

Ashes player of the series, Travis Head, holed out in the deep searching for quick runs, as did English import Ian Cockbain and Matthew Renshaw as the Hurricanes bowlers regained some momentum by taking 3-5 in 11 balls.

It was a notable shift from the Hobart quicks as they pulled back what looked certain to be a 200-plus score by bowling a lot shorter after the halfway mark to try and force the Strikers batters hit to the vast expanses of the MCG.

They managed to hold the Strikers to 6-188 from their 20 overs, with Rogers recovering from his earlier mishap to claim 2-37.

In the reply, the Hurricanes could not have started worse with both the tournament's top run scorer, Ben McDermott (6), and skipper Matthew Wade (7) falling in the first four overs as they slumped to 2-28.

D'Arcy Short (54 off 34) looked the be leading another Hurricanes fight back as he took the Power Surge and hit 31 from two overs.

But young Strikers quick Henry Thornton (2-25), in just his seventh BBL game, put a stop to that as he claimed both set batters in consecutive deliveries with Peter Handscomb also departing for 15.

From there it was a procession of wickets and despite a couple of big hits from Tim David the Hurricanes were bowled out for 166 in the last over as the Strikers won by 22 runs.

Strikers captain Peter Siddle was the chief destroyer and extended his lead as the tournament’s top wicket taker with 4-32.

Adelaide, who just five games ago were languishing at the bottom of the KFC BBL|11 table, haven't lost since and will take on the Thunder in the Knockout final at the MCG on Sunday night.

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