By Joel Gould
Josh Brown makes his own Cooper Bison bats and on Sunday night he showed he can wield them too as he lit up the Gabba with a whirlwind half-century to inspire the Brisbane Heat’s 15-run win over the Sydney Sixers.
The match had a sensational finish when Heat allrounder Michael Neser caught Jordan Silk (41 off 23 balls) in the 19th over.
Josh Brown in full flight for the Heat against the Sixers at the Gabba.Credit:Getty Images
Neser reached the ball just inside the boundary rope, but was unable to complete the catch while in the field of play. He threw the ball in the air, landed outside the field of play, then jumped to toss the ball up once more while again airborne, completing the catch moments later inside the boundary rope.
The 29-year-old Brown earlier produced his whirlwind innings to score 62 off just 23 balls in the Heat’s 5-224.
The Sixers made a gallant response in their pursuit of a BBL record run chase, but fell short to be all out from the final delivery for 209.
The Heat needed something special to get their season moving and Brown provided it in front of 23,689 fans while using a bat he made himself.
He brought up his 50 in just 19 deliveries, the equal fifth fastest in Heat history in just his second BBL game.
Brown cleared the boundary six times with an assortment of scintillating strokes.
The Heat opener works with Cooper Cricket founder Rod Grey. He has crafted hundreds of Cooper bats himself and repaired thousands for his cricket mates.
“I made my own bat, the Cooper Bison … it absolutely cannons off. It is one of the new ones I made myself and I fell in love with it,” Brown said after his innings. “All my mates call me ‘Bison’.”
Allrounder Nathan McSweeney (84 off 51 balls) made a superbly paced maiden BBL half-century to lift the Heat to their highest BBL score.
Sixers openers Josh Philippe (27) and James Vince (41) took a franchise record 54 runs off the four overs of the power play in pursuit.
Silk and allrounder Hayden Kerr (27) added 54 in 26 balls for the sixth wicket but the brilliant stumping of Kerr by Jimmy Peirson off spinner Matt Kuhnemann (2-31) proved crucial.
Neser’s catch to dismiss Sixers skipper Silk was the decisive moment in the run chase after he took 3-41 with the ball.
Elsewhere on Sunday, the Nic Maddinson’s suspected serious knee injury compounded the Melbourne Renegades’ woes after they suffered a fourth consecutive defeat.
The Renegades copped a five-wicket loss to the red-hot Perth Scorchers at Marvel Stadium, continuing their slide after a positive 3-0 start to the season.
Aaron Finch’s 65 off 48 had given the home side a sniff, steering them to 6-155 from their 20 overs.
But import opener Faf du Plessis (39 off 29) and Cam Bancroft (46 off 32) laid a solid platform for Perth and leading run scorer Josh Inglis (47 off 34) all but got the visitors over the line.
Inglis was out lbw to Will Sutherland (1-32) in the final over before Nick Hobson hit the winning run.
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