Perth Scorchers star Jhye Richardson says his side will draw huge confidence from what was just their second chasing victory of the season ahead of the Big Bash League finals.
A competition-wide preference to bowl first combined with captain Ashton Turner’s historically-unfortunate run of eight lost tosses in a row meant the Scorchers have found themselves fielding second in every game after their season-opening win over Sydney Sixers.
After Turner was at last on the right side of the bat flip in a winner-takes-first clash with Melbourne Stars, Perth’s bowlers routed the visitors for 130 before the batting group righted an early wobble to run down their target with six wickets in hand and secure hosting rights for Tuesday’s Qualifier.
Richardson joked he was as stunned as he was pleased to see the news his side had won the bat flip flash up on the scoreboard.
“For us to lose eight (tosses) in a row and still have the results we’ve had is a real credit to the team,” he said.
“Teams want to bowl first, but I think what comes with that is the power we have in our batting line-up, it gives them the freedom to go hard and really put a big score on the board.
“The flipside of that from a bowling perspective is we then know teams are then going to come hard at us early, so it probably puts us under a little bit more pressure.
“To bowl first tonight, to get an understanding of what the wicket’s going to do and how we want to go about our batting innings, I think was really advantageous for us.”