Returned Perth Scorchers paceman Jason Behrendorff says the Club’s tight-knit bowling unit has vowed to re-establish itself as the most revered in the competition after strangling the Brisbane Heat at #TheFurnace.
Behrendorff made his first appearance of the season for the Scorchers against the Heat after having missed the opening match due to lower back soreness.
The 25-year-old was a crucial cog in a bowling attack that rekindled its reputation from previous seasons as being capable of defending any total and, having lost the toss and being handed the ball, restricted the Heat to just 117, which the Scorchers’ batsmen chased down with almost five overs to spare.
Behrendorff received a rapturous applause when he was handed the ball in an opening pairing alongside fellow left-armer Joel Paris and those cheers reached new levels when he claimed a wicket in his first over of KFC BBL|05, having Lendl Simmons caught behind for a duck before finishing with figures of 2-32 from his four overs.
The bowler described returning to another sellout home crowd as “awesome” and sent a warning to the competition that the bowling unit was determined to continue its reputation as the stingiest in the country.
“Yeah, 100 per cent, we strive to be the best,” Behrendorff said.
“Hopefully we can continue to keep sides down to low totals like that and even bowl them out at times.
“We’re really happy with how we’re going with that.
“It was an awesome feeling (returning): it’s so good to come back and play cricket for one, but to play in front of 20,000 people that are fanatical and love watching us play was awesome.
“We spoke about going back to what we do well and knowing that we can execute our plans and execute them well.
“We showed that today.
“The bowlers have got that confidence in ourselves and in each other; everyone knows their role and executes it, so that’s the main thing.”
Behrendorff’s return was accompanied by the return to form of Andrew Tye (3-23), Joel Paris (0-25) and Brad Hogg (1-15), as well as the continued performance of England import David Willey (1-15).
It was a positive sign for the Scorchers, who had the significant outs of Shaun and Mitch Marsh and Adam Voges to Test duties, while having lost Nathan Coulter-Nile to injury.
Behrendorff said he had come through the match unscathed, meaning Perth should be able to carry the same well-performing bowling unit into its next match against the Melbourne Renegades at Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.
“It’s pretty tough work, to be honest,” Behrendorff said.
“You only bowl four overs, but I’m pretty cooked because it’s something you can’t replicate in the nets.
“But I’m happy to get one under the belt and now we’ll fire up for Wednesday.
“You always try to think about the good things you’ve done and I suppose, for me, I try to think about all those times I’ve done well.
“So it was nice to have a little boost with a wicket in my first over.
“The body feels fine.
“I’ll no doubt have a bit of soreness tomorrow, but that’s just general soreness and that’s what you get.
“It’s a very day-to-day sort of thing, but hopefully I’ll be able to play every game; that’s certainly my goal.”