{"id":415893,"date":"2026-01-16T02:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T02:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/415893\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T02:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T02:08:15","slug":"finn-allen-smashes-maiden-bbl-century-as-perth-scorchers-book-finals-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/415893\/","title":{"rendered":"Finn Allen smashes maiden BBL century as Perth Scorchers book finals spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kiwi batter Finn Allen has smashed a masterful first BBL century as the Perth Scorchers punched their finals ticket with a commanding 50-run win over the Melbourne Renegades.<\/p>\n

The Scorchers were sent in to bat on Thursday night at Docklands Stadium, where chasing teams had won 14 of the previous 16 matches.<\/p>\n

Allen relished the challenge, thumping 101 from 53 balls to help the Scorchers post a massive 7-219 \u2014 just four runs shy of the highest-ever total at the ground.<\/p>\n

Jake Fraser-McGurk gave the Renegades a brief burst of life in the chase with five sixes in his quickfire 42 off 18, and Tim Seifert kept the flame flickering with 66 off 43.<\/p>\n

But the victory target always looked beyond their reach as the home side managed 7-169.<\/p>\n

Allen brought up his first BBL century \u2014 his fifth in T20 cricket \u2014 off just 51 balls before he eventually holed out to long-on off Adam Zampa.<\/p>\n

It was the second-fastest century in Scorchers franchise history, with the second 50 runs coming in just 17 deliveries.<\/p>\n

“It was nice,” Allen told AAP.<\/p>\n

“It was pretty tough early on, and I tried to get rogue on it a little bit.<\/p>\n

“The wicket was doing a touch, then I just tried to push on and create a competitive score from us.”<\/p>\n

Allen smashed eight sixes and five fours in his match-winning knock.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

The powerful right-hander was given two lifelines, first dropped on eight by Harry Dixon on the boundary off Gurinder Sandhu’s bowling.<\/p>\n

He was on 37 not out when he hit the Docklands Stadium roof with a huge strike off Will Sutherland \u2014 resulting in a dead ball \u2014 and was dropped by Sandhu at cover next ball.<\/p>\n

It was a difficult chance, with Allen’s shot cracked low at Sandhu with incredible power.<\/p>\n

Allen showed no mercy to Sandhu, smashing the right-arm quick for three consecutive sixes to kick off the power surge, with the Scorchers taking 34 runs from it for the loss of one wicket.<\/p>\n

One of the blows sent the ball flying over long-on, up into the second tier of the grandstand.<\/p>\n

“I don’t actually know how big they were, but [I’ve got] good bats,” Allen said.<\/p>\n

Sam Elliott, who took 4-28 from three overs, was the best of the Renegades’ bowlers, with legspinner Zampa (1-31, four) the tightest.<\/p>\n

Allen had a scare when his troublesome hamstring cramped, and he didn’t take to the field for the second innings.<\/p>\n

Mitch Marsh also sat out after a ball hit him on the heel, but is expected to be fit to play when the Scorchers (6-3) host the Melbourne Stars (6-3) on Saturday in what is effectively a playoff for a top-two spot.<\/p>\n

Renegades batter Dixon was hit in the neck by a bouncer from Scorchers quick Mahli Beardman and was alert afterwards, but was taken to hospital as a precaution.<\/p>\n

The pair were Australian teammates in the 2024 Under-19 World Cup win.<\/p>\n

Before the first ball, former Scorchers star and current Renegades squad member AJ Tye announced his BBL retirement.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old will take up a two-year deal with Yorkshire as a local player, qualifying through his English parents.<\/p>\n

Tye, a four-time title winner with the Scorchers, leaves the BBL as the competition’s second-highest wicket-taker with 162 dismissals and an economy rate of 7.99 over 119 matches.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kiwi batter Finn Allen has smashed a masterful first BBL century as the Perth Scorchers punched their finals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,29878,22249,740,195833,29544,60180,85],"class_list":["post-415893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bbl","tag-big-bash-league","tag-cricket","tag-finn-allen","tag-melbourne-renegades","tag-perth-scorchers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}