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Already without four-time champions Jason Behrendorff and Andrew Tye for the summer while injured Lance Morris took no part in the campaign, many experts wrote the Scorchers off.<\/p>\n
But even without Inglis through his Australian squad commitments and Agar with injury, Perth have found a way to book themselves the home BBL final against the Sydney Sixers on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Scorchers beat Sixers, move to BBL final | 03:12<\/p>\n
And they\u2019ve done it in entertaining fashion, by breaking the record for most 200+ scores in a single season (five) and with the most sixes (114) in a single season.<\/p>\n
While the Scorchers will be aiming for a record sixth BBL crown \u2013 in what will be their ninth final appearance in just 15 seasons, the one constant through it all has been the skipper Turner.<\/p>\n
Despite Australian T20 captain Mitch Marsh\u2019s return to the Scorchers, it\u2019s Turner who leads Perth\u2019s BBL charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got an amazing cricketing brain \u2026 he\u2019s obviously just a very calm, level-headed guy, but he reads the game so well, and he understands that people are going to make mistakes at certain times. And that\u2019s all part and parcel of being a great leader of a team like this,\u201d teammate Laurie Evans said of his captain.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Turner could make history as the only player to claim five Big Bash League crowns.<\/p>\n
Ashton Turner celebrates a wicket with now-Scorchers coach Adam Voges in 2016.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Already holding the record for most runs, most games and most non-keeper catches for the Scorchers, the man himself is adamant luck has played a part in his five finals appearances.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m probably one of those players in the bracket where I\u2019m good enough to warrant selection most games, but I\u2019m also not playing international cricket and not getting dragged in other directions and I\u2019m a middle order batter who bowls a couple of overs and I field in the ring so the physical demands on my body are less than the fast bowlers, other guys in our group, so I\u2019ve missed less games with injuries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve missed little bits throughout, but fundamentally \u2026 it\u2019s probably not even 12 games I\u2019ve missed. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of familiar faces around me as well. So, I think I\u2019m one part of the puzzle, but there\u2019s been a lot of continuity within our group over that period of time as well.<\/p>\n
Ashton Turner leads the Scorchers out.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cZooming out even further and across all domestic cricket, including one day domestic cricket, Sheffield Shield cricket, and clearly the Big Bash, it\u2019s been a really rich part of West Australian cricket\u2019s history \u2026 we\u2019ve been able to play in and win so many flags over the last decade, give or take. And to be a part of that is really satisfying. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs you get older, I guess my goals have changed, and I\u2019ve probably shifted away from individual goals and more towards team success. I reflect really fondly on the opportunities that we\u2019ve had to play finals and then subsequently the amount of trophies that we\u2019ve actually been able to win. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m closer to the end of my career than at the start, but I already get the sense that the reflections and the moments I\u2019m going to cherish the most post-career are definitely the days like Sunday and the times when we\u2019ve been able to lift trophies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The skipper, who will celebrate his 33rd birthday during the BBL final, believes the risks Perth took in building their squad have paid off \u2013 particularly with the emergence of young pace star Mahli Beardman and the development of reigning Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year Cooper Connolly with the ball.<\/p>\n
Ashton Turner talks to his teammates before the BBL match.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that AJ (Tye) and Dorf (Behrendorff) were really big parts of the reason why we\u2019ve been successful for a long period of time, but we also had an inkling that their time was going to be up at some point, and we were going to need to have contingencies and future proof this team,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen that with guys like Mahli, Cooper, young guys bowling lots of overs for us, and it\u2019s a challenge for us when we\u2019re doing our list management, because we do it a long way out from the season. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got eight fast bowlers on our list, because unfortunately history would suggest that we\u2019re going to have injuries and we are going to have unavailabilities through international selection. We face these challenges every year.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably one of the most satisfying parts of our success this season has been we knew coming into this season that we had some vulnerabilities. We had one full time wicket keeper in Josh Inglis, who\u2019s been unavailable for big parts, and through Finn (Allen) and Laurie (Evans) and Joel Curtis, we\u2019ve been able to almost seamlessly cover his absence at times.<\/p>\n
Ashton Turner remains integral to the Perth Scorchers.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came into the campaign with one frontline spinner in Ash Agar and he\u2019s been unavailable for the last few games, but to have Cooper step into that frontline spinner role and probably exceed everyone\u2019s expectations \u2026 those two gaps that we\u2019ve been able to fill almost seamlessly are a big part of the reason as to why we\u2019re playing on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Perth Scorchers will host rivals the Sydney Sixers in the BBL15 final on Sunday, with first ball from 7.15pm AEDT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scorchers skipper Ashton Turner admits Perth took a gamble with plans to \u201cfuture proof\u201d the team heading into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226742,226751,189777,189816,63,689,35086,226743,226744,9203,226753,69543,35084,205332,52627,195833,226752,226741,2105,226748,43,226745,60178,22256,37108,189783,24309,3453,44,677,226749,3473,46,60180,226750,167760,158194,21377,226746,41,39,42,40,3439,226740,226754,226747],"class_list":["post-433573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-adan-voges","tag-amazing-cricketing-brain","tag-andrew-tye","tag-ashton-turner","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-cricket","tag-australian-squad-commitments","tag-bash-league","tag-catherine-healey","tag-day-domestic","tag-domestic-cricket","tag-fast-bowlers","tag-final-appearance","tag-finals-appearances","tag-finn-allen","tag-frontline-spinner","tag-frontline-spinner-role","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-guys-bowling-lots","tag-headlines","tag-historic-feat","tag-jason-behrendorff","tag-josh-inglis","tag-lance-morris","tag-laurie-evans","tag-list-management","tag-mitch-marsh","tag-news","tag-oceania","tag-order-batter","tag-paul-kane","tag-perth","tag-perth-scorchers","tag-satisfying-parts","tag-single-season","tag-sydney-sixers","tag-team-heading","tag-time-wicket-keeper","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-western-australia","tag-year-cooper-connolly","tag-young-guys-bowling","tag-young-pace-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433573","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=433573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}