Babar Azam's horror run in BBL continues as Sydney Sixers lose first qualifier to Perth Scorchers

Perth Scorchers qualified for their ninth Big Bash League (BBL) final with a comprehensive 48-run victory over the  Sydney Sixers at the Optus stadium on Tuesday. Despite not giving a great performance with the bat, Scorchers turned up the heat with the ball and went on to win the match rather comfortably.

After being invited to bat first, the Scorchers' batting proved to be average with Finn Allen being the top-scorer with his knock of 49. Ashton Turner and Jhye Richardson's impactful cameos of 29 and 20 respectively helped them in getting to a total of 147/9 after 20 overs. Sixers did a great job in the bowling department with the likes of Mitchell Starc, Ben Dwarshuis and Jack Edwards clinching two scalps each.

Babar's batting woes continue

In reply, the Moises Henriques-led side had a terrible start to the chase as Babar Azam was sent back to the pavilion on just the second delivery of the innings. The batter was dismissed for a duck by left-arm spinner Cooper Connolly, who completely bamboozled him with a superb delivery and wicketkeeper Josh Inglis did the rest. The Pakistan batter has had a dismal debut BBL campaign and has only managed to score 202 runs in 11 matches so far with a strike-rate of 103,06.

The Sixers failed to stitch a strong partnership as the likes of Josh Philippe, Henriques, Lachlan Shaw and Edwards all got dismissed cheaply before Mahli Beardman got the huge wicket of Steve Smith for 37 runs in the 11th over. The wicket saw the team go down to 74/6 and now were in need of a minor miracle to chase the 149-run target,

Sixers bundled out for modest total

Unfortunately for them, the miracle never came and their remaining four wickets fell in a space of just 25 runs. With this, the Sixers were bowled out for just 99 runs in 15 overs. What was expected to be an intense chase ended up being completely one-sided as Scorchers' bowling attack put in a fantastic performance.

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Beardman was the star of the show with his figures of 3/20 while both Connolly and David Payne also contributed well by racking up two wickets each. Scorchers will now be playing the final on Januray 25 while on the other hand, Sixers will be aiming to qualify for the stage by winning the second qualifier where they will either face Hobart Hurricanes and Melbourne Stars on January 23.