Bancroft, Fawad Ahmed hand Scorchers away win

Perth Scorchers rode on Cameron Bancroft's half-century and an excellent bowling display to tie down Brisbane Heat and register their first away win of the BBL 09 season. On a tricky surface at the Carrara Oval in Queensland, Scorchers opted to bat and reached 140, a total Brisbane's power-packed, but flawed line-up floundered in the face of.

Starting with the toss, the Scorchers began the game on the front foot and saw their advantage to the finish line with some no-frills cricket. Openers Josh Inglis and Liam Livingstone hit 30 in the first three overs before Zahir Khan's double strike opened a door for Heat. Bancroft's arrival at this 43/2 inflexion point was opportune for Perth.

Bancroft combined with Ashton Turner to steady the innings and then along with Mitchell Marsh (26 off 19) proceeded to push the total beyond the realms of what was realistically chaseable on this pitch. Ben Laughlin picked up a couple of wickets at the death but Heat still had to chase down 150 for their second win of the season.

The task quickly tilted towards improbable once the chase began when the much-vaunted Englishman Tom Banton fell to Jhye Richardson in the third over for a 10-ball 7. Max Bryant fell for 6 and when Chris Lynn, for so long Heat's enforcer, was dismissed for a 21-ball 14, the writing was very much on the wall. Fawad Ahmed and Matthew Kelly were particularly impressive with the ball, looting five wickets between them as Heat hurtled towards an embarrassing defeat.

Their ignominy was only somewhat tempered by Zahir and Laughlin, who added 31 runs for the 10th wicket before Kelly applied the finishing touches of a 40-run victory.

Brief scores: Perth Scorchers 149/6 in 20 overs (Cameron Bancroft 50, Josh Inglis 27; Zahir Khan 2-18) beat Brisbane Heat 109 in 18.4 overs (Fawad Ahmed 3-16, Ashton Agar 2-16, Matthew Kelly 2-22) by 40 runs.