Re-energised Livingstone hopes highlights keep rolling

Having boosted his self-belief by watching old highlights of himself before last night's Challenger final, Liam Livingstone hopes the Sydney Sixers similarly watched the Perth Scorchers play the “perfect game” to set up a rivalry-filled KFC BBL final.

Livingstone’s confidence dipped after going five innings without passing 32 but after watching old videos of his best work on the field on Thursday afternoon, he proceeded to smash six sixes in a match-winning innings to knock out the Brisbane Heat.

The Englishman stood up in the absence of his countryman and opening partner Jason Roy, who remains under an injury cloud for Saturday’s decider at the SCG.

The Sixers defeated the Scorchers in last week’s Qualifier final to book their spot in the season decider for a second-straight season, but Livingstone believes Perth have now rediscovered their best form.

It will be the fourth time in 10 BBL seasons that the two teams have met in a final.

“I hope they were watching and are running scared,” Livingstone said with a half-smile. “The Sixers are playing great cricket, they’ve beaten us a couple of times.

“Playing this game (against the Heat) can go one of two ways – you can get a bit of momentum … that they (the Sixers) haven’t had the chance to get.

“The rivalry is pretty big, I guess it will be a little bigger after what happened in that last game. The better we (play) when we get in a fight. Hopefully we can bring our A-game on Saturday.”

Livingstone belted 77 from just 39 balls in a player-of-the-match performance against the ragged Heat, who had no answers to the right-hander’s sheer power.

It fired the Scorchers to 1-189 from 18.1 overs, with the Heat’s revised target of 200 off 18 overs following some rain proving far too many.

Livingstone is strong through the leg-side, but he said a searing cut shot for six off Xavier Bartlett to Manuka Oval’s long off-side boundary got him going.

“I spent a bit of time this afternoon having a look back to when I’d done well,” the 27-year-old said.

“Coming into games with not great confidence is not really what I do, so I tried to have a look back at a few videos from last year and see what I did well to give myself a bit of confidence leading into today.

“I felt totally different.

“It’s pretty pleasing it’s come together towards the big end of the tournament.”

Livingstone is a close friend of Roy’s and said the opener was disappointed to miss Thursday’s clash against the Heat.

Scorchers coach Adam Voges said Roy rolled his right ankle at training this week while warming up, though Livingstone confirmed it was not sustained playing soccer.

“He was running around and turned his ankle,” said Livingstone. “It can happen. He could do it wherever.

“It makes it even sweeter we’ve done it without him. Who knows the next couple of days, we’ll see how he pulls up and fingers crossed he’s all right.

“You play tournaments to win them and come the crunch Jase would have been a massive part of our team for … today.

“He’s disappointed. Off the pitch, he fills a lot of boys with confidence and he’s that big alpha-male that’s great to have in the dressing room.”  

BBL|10 Finals Series
(all matches will screen on Channel 7, Fox Cricket & Kayo)

The Eliminator: Brisbane Heat (4) beat Adelaide Strikers (5) by six wickets

The Qualifier: Sydney Sixers (1) beat Perth Scorchers (2) by nine wickets

The Knock-Out: Brisbane Heat (4) beat Sydney Thunder (3) by seven wickets

The Challenger: Perth Scorchers (2) beat Brisbane Heat (4) by 49 runs (DLS)

The Final: Sydney Sixers v Perth Scorchers. Sat Feb 6, SCG, 7.40pm AEDT