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The Brisbane Heat have stormed home in their BBL knockout final against the Sydney Thunder, exploding in the back half of their run chase to score a seven-wicket win.
They will now play the Perth Scorchers for a spot in the final, but the game will be at Canberra’s Manuka Oval, after the Perth lockdown stripped the second-placed Scorchers of their home-ground advantage.
The Sydney Sixers are waiting in the decider after beating the Scorchers in the first game of the finals series.
The Heat were only set a target of 159 runs to win on Sunday night, but it looked well beyond them as they went at less than a run a ball for the first 12 overs.
But that was when Sam Heazlett (74* off 49) and Jimmy Peirson (43* off 24) launched a match-winning partnership of 92 off 43 to get the Heat home with five balls remaining.
The target would have been much less if not for some late hitting by former Heat star Ben Cutting (34* off 18), who hit four sixes and a four in his innings after arriving at the crease at 5-109 with just 4.2 overs left.
He dragged the Thunder to a competitive total and it seemed likely to be enough as the Heat started their chase woefully.
English opener Joe Denly was out for a duck in the second over and captain Chris Lynn was gone for 10 in the third.
Marnus Labuschagne and Heazlett went about rebuilding things from there, but hit just four boundaries in 55 deliveries together before Labuschagne was narrowly run out trying to eke out an extra run at the end of the 12th over.
That seemed to get Heazlett out of his funk and aided by Peirson, coming off his match-winning heroics in the Heat’s first final against Adelaide, the next 28 balls went for 66 runs.
The target was now comfortably within reach and the Brisbane pair slapped three fours and a six off the last 11 balls of the innings to advance.
