Perth Scorchers 219 for 7 (Allen 101, Hardie 22, Elliott 4-28) beat Melbourne Renegades 169 for 7 (Seifert 66, Fraser-McGurk 42, Connolly 2-23) by 50 runs
Allen’s 101 off 53 balls completely dominated Scorchers’ innings as he whacked eight of the team’s 16 sixes. Scorchers continued their batting assault away from home, having struck 200-plus totals in all five games on the road.
Allen did receive some luck after being dropped on 8 and 37, but he made Renegades pay and targeted the region down the ground to devastating effect. Scorchers did not miss a beat without Josh Inglis, who was rested under a Cricket Australia workload management plan.
But Fraser-McGurk’s 18-ball 42 ended on the next delivery when he holed out to hand Holt a maiden BBL wicket.
Mohammad Rizwan, who was retired out without an injury against Sydney Thunder earlier in the week, skied his fourth ball to continue his rough tournament. Harry Dixon had to retire hurt after the seventh over, having been struck on the neck by a brute of a short ball from Mahli Beardman.
Scorchers exacted revenge after a heart-breaking home loss last week, where they fell to a last-ball six by Oliver Peake, who is currently in Namibia, where he’s preparing to captain Australia at their Under-19 World Cup opener on Friday.
Earlier, Scorchers had remarkably lost the bat flip for the eighth straight game, but again enjoyed batting first. After four dot balls, Allen exploded when he whacked a short ball from left-arm spinner Hassan Khan over the deep-midwicket boundary.
Mitchell Marsh traded blows with Allen and countered movement off the surface by bludgeoning quicks Brendan Doggett and Gurinder Sandhu into the crowd. Renegades were left despondent when Allen carved Sandhu to deep cover only for the ball to slip through the fingers of Dixon.
Sandhu was left flustered, and his mood soured further when he subsequently dropped Allen in a hot chance on the edge of the ring. Sandhu somewhat made amends on the next delivery when he hung on to a skier from Marsh but it was only momentary relief for Renegades.
Allen reached his half-century off 34 balls, and then put the foot down in a stunning assault. Legspinner Adam Zampa, reportedly on the move from Renegades after the season, was also on the receiving end when he helplessly watched the ball sail down the ground for six.
Scorchers took the power surge at 86 for 1 after ten overs, and the move paid immediate dividends, with Allen walloping three consecutive sixes off Sandhu, capped by a 104m rocket down the ground. Having scored just seven runs in his past four innings, Connolly made a watchful start before smashing Will Sutherland for a couple of sixes. He then fell on 18, but Scorchers still racked up 34 runs in the power surge.
There was no stopping Allen, whose second half-century was reached in just 17 balls as he took off his helmet to celebrate a maiden BBL ton.
Tristan Lavalette is a journalist based in Perth
