How the Scorchers juggernaut claimed their fifth title

Of the five KFC BBL titles the Perth Scorchers have won, this one is possibly the sweetest.

Andrew Tye – who has played in four of them – certainly believes so.

It can be a rough road that leads to greatness and this Scorchers outfit certainly faced plenty of bumps.

In the space of 22 days at the end of November and early December last year, they lost five of their best XI, including all three overseas draft picks (Laurie Evans, Phil Salt and Tymal Mills), Mitch Marsh to ankle surgery and Lance Morris to the Australian Test squad.

They'd later lose Jhye Richardson and Cameron Green to injuries and Ashton Agar also to the Test squad.

But the talent-well in Western Australia runs deep, and as they always have, the Scorchers unearthed their latest local stars to take the Big Bash by storm.

And the fact that talent was there at the end and delivered under their first real moment of extreme pressure in their professional careers with a record crowd of 53,886 riding every ball, it perhaps makes this triumph all the more satisfying.

"Great teams win the big games, and that was our responsibility tonight," Scorchers captain and Player of the Final, Ashton Turner, told cricket.com.au post-match.

"It's a really satisfying feeling. We know we've played some really good cricket all campaign. We knew that we came in favourites.

"We've run into a red-hot Brisbane Heat side, they won more finals this campaign than any other team.

"To watch what those guys were able to do in the clutch moments, they'll reflect on that in the years and years to come and be satisfied in the result."

The Scorchers are now Australia's most successful T20 side, eclipsing the four titles won by the Victorian Bushrangers in the original Big Bash competition.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Most T20 domestic titles

Titans (6 titles) – CSA T20 Challenge

Sialkot Stallions (6 titles) – Pakistan National T20 Cup

Mumbai Indians (5 titles) – IPL

Perth Scorchers (5 titles) – BBL

Victorian Bushrangers (4 titles) – Big Bash

Trinbago Knight Riders (4 titles) – CPL

Auckland Aces (4 titles) – Super Smash

Wellington Firebirds (4 titles) – Super Smash

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Only the Titans (six titles) in the CSA T20 Challenge, the Sialkot Stallions (six) in Pakistan's National T20 Cup and the Mumbai Indians (five) in the Indian Premier League have enjoyed as much success worldwide.

Their win percentage (60.32) sits just outside the top 10 among the world's domestic T20 teams to have played more than 100 matches, but it's their ability to win finals (64.7 per cent) that rivals some of the greatest sports teams ever seen.

And as last night's record Perth Stadium BBL crowd showed (their first Final victory at the venue with the previous deciders having been hosted by the WACA), they are Western Australia's favourite team.

***

"It was a real blow," recalls Scorchers head coach Adam Voges of the feeling of losing all three of their overseas draft picks before the season without getting a game out of any of them.

But the five-time title winning player and coach revealed it freed them up to go talk to other players that they'd already had their eye on during the draft process.

It had been a toss-up at the time for their third pick between English left-armer David Payne and Mills, while Stephen Eskinazi has a long affiliation with WA Cricket and Voges having come through the state pathway system as a junior.

He's also a regular for Premier club Claremont-Nedlands during the Australia summer and played with the Scorchers coach during his time at Middlesex between 2013-2017.

"David Payne just told me it's only the second trophy he has ever won," Voges said.

"So for him to come in have the impact that he did, Steve Eskinazi, Faf (du Plessis) at the beginning of the tournament, they've all come in played a role for us.

"You obviously put a lot of time and effort into the draft itself ... but we had our eyes on a number of players, as we do every year.

"It actually freed us up to then go and talk to players and get in who we needed to (for) specific roles.

"We know it's a real squad effort each and every season.

"We need different guys to put their hand up and stand up and we've certainly had that again this year."

***

While having good overseas recruits each tournament is important, the Scorchers way has always been to look after their domestic players first, and Voges was especially thrilled to see two young West Australians out in the middle when the BBL|12 Final was won.

"That's what we've tried to do over a period of time is introduce some young guys into our squad and try and give them a specific role to fill for us and then give them the opportunity when it presents," he said.

"It doesn't always work but for young Cooper Connolly and Nick Hobson to get the job done tonight, they haven't had to bat a lot in this tournament, so to come out and be able to execute as well as they did was something really special."

Connolly had faced just 11 balls in the tournament, while Hobson had batted just twice in his previous eight games, prior to their match-winning knocks in the Final, with Voges revealing the pair had hit them as cleanly during range hitting practice a few days earlier as what they did last night.

"We took a bit of a risk to give Cooper a game," Voges said.

"Ash Agar was available for one more, but we wanted to get Cooper into the tournament, we knew he was going to play a role if we went deep in this tournament and it worked out really nicely.

"But for a 19-year-old to have the composure and ability to play the innings he just did was amazing."

But Voges is also a realist and admits that keeping their local group of players together is getting harder and harder to do.

"With success our players get noticed and they want to get reward for that success as well," he said.

"Our list management group does a wonderful job to try and keep the core of this group together.

"I'm sure the other teams will come knocking, but it's a group and a club that everyone who's involved in can be really proud of and I think that's what keeps people here and keeps us really competitive on the field."

Highest win percentage of domestic T20 teams (min 100 games) 

Tamil Nadu (India) – M: 102, WP: 73.03 

Karnataka (India) – M: 107, WP: 71.96 

Delhi – M: 110, WP: 66.81 

Mumbai – M: 101, WP: 65.34 

Punjab – M: 113, WP: 62.83 

Trinbago Knight Riders – M: 114, WP: 62.61 

Nottinghamshire – M: 229, WP: 61.88 

Titans (South Africa) – M: 179, WP: 61.53 

Sydney Sixers – M: 150, WP: 61.22 

Lancashire – M: 234, WP: 60.69 

Perth Scorchers – M: 158, WP: 60.32 

Guyana Amazon Warriors – M: 111, WP: 59.45