Turner stranded short of ton, but helps rescue Perth's BBL season
Ashton Turner narrowly misses out on a maiden BBL century as he helps launch Perth to a crucial 71-run win over the Sydney Thunder.
Ashton Turner joined one of the Big Bash's unluckiest clubs as he helped revive Perth's season, his unbeaten 99 leading the Scorchers to a 71-run win over the Sydney Thunder.
After coming to the wicket with the visitors 3-34 in the sixth over, Turner became just the fourth player in BBL history to be stranded on 99 not out as he took his side to 8-202 at Sydney Showground.
The Thunder was then bowled out for 131 in reply in the 18th over, with the hosts unable to capitalise on a hot start from David Warner (25) and Matthew Gilkes (33).
After one win from its opening three games, Perth was staring down the barrel of its worst start to a season in five years with defeat on Tuesday night.
But the BBL powerhouse is now back in the top four, with the Thunder 1-4 and its season all but over.
That was largely thanks to Turner, who blasted eight sixes from his 41 balls and narrowly missed out on the fifth-fastest century in BBL history.
With Perth in early trouble, Turner changed the game when he smashed three off the ninth over from Chris Green.
He then hit Tanveer Sangha for another six down the ground, before taking down Daniel Sams late in the innings.
After starting the final over on 86, Turner smashed Sams for two big sixes over long on to move within touching distance of his maiden BBL ton.
But after driving the left-armer for a single, Ashton Agar hit a boundary of his own and was then caught in the deep on the penultimate ball to deny Turner the strike.
"I've been getting single-figure scores the last couple of games, so it's better than that," Turner quipped.
"Once I got to 20, I was like, 'At least I've done something tonight'.
"I knew what I was on, but I also had 200 in my mind as a really good team score and we were approaching that.
"We had 260 chased down a week ago, so you're never thinking you have enough runs. We wanted to scrap together every run we could."
In the end, the Scorchers' total was plenty enough.
Warner and Gilkes shot out of the blocks to be 0-60 after 6.3 overs, before the former was well caught in the deep by Finn Allen.
Gilkes was then run out in a mix-up with Sam Konstas (21), with the Thunder's chase never really looking likely beyond that.
Instead, Aaron Hardie, Cooper Connolly, Joel Paris and Brody Couch all took over with the ball, taking two wickets each to completely derail the hosts' innings.
The Scorchers also caught supremely well, in a return to their best after an off few nights in the field.
AAP
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