Chris Sabburg started the summer by winning the 18th contract with the Brisbane Heat after competing in the KFC T20 Challenge in Queensland. He was then selected in three games during BBL03. In these games he made 19 off 19, did not bat and finished with 16 off 28. His strike rate through the tournament was a lacklustre 74.5 and for a man batting in the final six overs that’s just not good enough and slows the team of any momentum. This brought him from batting at six to in his second game to batting at nine. This was a tournament he will want to forget in a hurry and build for a better season in BBL04.
Clint McKay, the man who has dominated for Victoria and Australia (Included winning the One Day International Player of the Season in 2012/2013) had a tournament he would rather forget. McKay was dropped after round 4 of the tournament through his lack of form. His last eight overs in the competition cost him a staggering 93. He also finished the tournament with his runs per over reaching 9.92. The worst figures came against the Renegades; he took 0/50 off his 4 overs. Aaron Finch took a liking to his Victorian team-mate blasting him for three maximums in what turned out to be his last over of the tournament. Next year the Stars will expect a lot more out of McKay if they want to make it past the semi-finals on their third attempt.
For me, Shah has been the biggest disappointment of the whole Big Bash League this summer. After a stunning BBL02, he came over for BBL03 and looked disinterested and his results showed. Hobart would have been expecting big things out of their import but were left with 52 runs at an average of only 10.40 in 5 games; this only included two double figure scores of 11 and 32. Shah was only striking the ball at 96.3 which is not what you’re after for a man who was batting at 4 and 5. These results eventuated into Shah being dropped and not featuring in the Hurricanes side during their finals appearances. On these stats alone it will be interesting to see if Hobart do bring him back for BBL04, I think they will leave him at home in England.
Chris Sabburg (Brisbane Heat)
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Clint McKay (Melbourne Stars)
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Owais Shah (Hobart Hurricanes)
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