Ollie Peake smashes last-ball six to win thriller for Melbourne Renegades over Perth Scorchers; Australia Test selectors know him well
Peake went on to record an unbeaten 42, including a premeditated flick-of-the-wrist scoop six over the fine leg fence off the final ball from Aaron Hardie to win the match. Chasing the Scorchers’ 127, and still needing a four off the last ball to win, the Renegades finished on 6-130.
“I’m a bit out of breath, and I’ve got a dry mouth, but that was pretty cool,” said Peake in the aftermath on the Seven coverage.
“Once that run rate [required] got up to 10s, it was pretty clear we had to take the [power] surge.
“A.T. [Turner], being such a good captain, brought their gun bowlers… they’re all gun bowlers, but especially Jhye [Richardson]… on to bowl a few overs through the middle there, and he’s obviously relentless coming off a Test match. We couldn’t really get him away and then [I] just got a bit lucky with that catch and probably should have learnt then to stop trying to force the ball down the ground.
“I was shanking them around, but I was lucky to get a couple behind the wicket and [I’m] just really happy to get the win in the end.”
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Peake explained that he caught the attention of Renegades coach, and ex-Australian star, Cameron White in the dugout in the closing stages of the chase, and the former big-hitting all-rounder was telling him to look for the ramp or scoop shot to the shortest part of the ground.
“Then Sammy [Elliott, who was the not-out batsman at the non-striker’s end] came down and was like, ‘What are you thinking?’ and I was… still a bit oblivious and I was like I’ll just stand still and see if I can smack it, and he’s like, ‘No, ramp it’.
“I was just lucky to get it out of the middle – it was into the wind as well. That was probably playing on my mind a bit – that I didn’t know if I could get it over [the fence].”
After Josh Brown (22) teed off early, the Renegades were cruising at 1-51 from six overs before being restricted to 4-23 from the next eight.
At one stage 50 balls were bowled without a boundary before Peake dominated a 42-run sixth-wicket stand with skipper Will Sutherland (15) and rode his good fortune to finish his BBL campaign on a stunning high.
Peake (centre) was swamped by teammates after the game.Credit: Getty Images
Earlier, Gurinder Sandhu snared 4-28 to take his season tally to 14 wickets at 14.71, moving into top position on the Golden Arm leaderboard.
Hardie (44) was scratchy but top-scored for the Scorchers, who wobbled early and crashed hard late, losing 5-11 from 17 deliveries.
After Finn Allen (8) and Cooper Connolly (3) fell cheaply, Mitch Marsh, who had looked in solid touch, feathered Hassan Khan’s arm-ball to Mohammad Rizwan.
Three wickets fell in Sandhu’s last over as the Scorchers lost 5-16.
Peake, whose father Clinton played for Victoria in the early 2000s, rocketed onto the radar of the Australian selectors in October last year after his match-winning knock steered his state to a win over reigning champions South Australia in the opening match of the Sheffield Shield season. Peake scored an unbeaten 70 in just his fifth first-class game and second at Shield level.
Peake and NSW wunderkind Sam Konstas were also in the Australian team that won last year’s under-19 World Cup.
With AAP
