Big Bash League 2017

The Perth Scorchers bid the WACA ground farewell with their third Big Bash League title in four years and a vintage performance straight from their tried and tested copybook. Their nine-wicket win came with 25 balls to spare, comfortably the most emphatic winning margin in a BBL final.

Adam Voges won the toss and bowled, as they prefer to and 28 of 35 captains this BBL season have done. They took wickets in the Powerplay and strangled the Sixers, keeping them to 141. In the chase, their top order did the work in a belligerent Powerplay, then they sauntered home as if they had an early dinner reservation. Which they may well have done - the game was over in the blink of an eye.

Their triumph lifted one of the BBL's peculiar hoodoos, as they become the first table-toppers to take home the title. The Sydney Sixers, whose women's team won the WBBL earlier in the day, were the latest - and likely the last - victims of BBL cricket, the WACA way. The plan is for the Scorchers to play next season at the new 60,000-seater Perth Stadium, across the river from the WACA but hulking, seeming bigger at each glance. Just another homogeneous state-of-the-art bowl, there will be no Fremantle Doctor, history or iconic floodlights.

Sean Abbott who took 20 wickets in the tournament is the Under 25 cricketer of the tournament. Jhye Richardson was the Man of the Match in the final. Chris Lynn of Brisbane Heat was the Player of the tournament. 

Big Bash League 2016

The fifth BBL final was a tale of two innings and two collapses. Kevin Peterson who is in marvelous form scored 74 before Usman Khawaja who is in simply superhuman touch, made 70 which as wickets tumbled proved enough to hand Sydney Thunder their first title. Thunder had never finished outside the bottom two for the first four sessions and 2015-16 has been a topsy turvy one too.

They lost four consecutive games after winning their first three and only crept into the finals when their fate was beyond their control. Thunder have won only 11 out of 41 matches since the Big Bash inception and Hussey has been at the helm of nine of them, including a final on the same day Thunder won the inaugural Women BBL too. In final game, Hussey was given a guard of honor by Stars led by their captain, David Hussey.

Stars were 50 for 2 in seven overs when the other opener Luke Wright fell, but Pieterson was unperturbed. In Peter Handscomb and David Hussey, Pieterson found a pair of willing assistants to run hard and exploit the MCG vast expenses. But when Kallis bowled Hussey with a magnificent Yorker, it sparked a collapse as Stars lost six wickets for 45 runs.

In response, Khawaja ends the BBL with 345 runs in four innings, three of which were genuinely match winning. In last Ben Rohrer flicked to leg for two, and drove down the ground for six to win the game. Usman Khawaja was named Man of the Match and Chris Lynn was named as Man of the Series.