"Take on the short boundary."
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That was the advice of Darren Lehmann as the Brisbane Heat struggled to get away, inspiring a late charge by Sam Heazlett to end the Sydney Thunder's Big Bash season.
A laboring Heazlett innings led Brisbane to a seven-wicket victory over the Thunder at Manuka Oval on Sunday night, with Lehmann's outfit now only one win away from the BBL10 final.
Brisbane, who won the toss and elected to field first, had a slow run-rate and was 2/56 halfway through the chase. But Heazlett showed character and blasted 74* from 49, to steam the Heat home with five balls remaining.
"It was nice to be out there for that period and get us home from there," Heazlett said.
"At the 10-over mark we had wickets in hand, I was just looking to go hard towards the short-boundary with the leg-spinner on... and back my skills there.
"I was lucky enough to get a few away which took the pressure off a bit, from there I started to try and hit the ball really hard. Thankfully it came off."
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It marked the final chapter of the Thunder's campaign at Manuka Oval, having made it their fortress throughout the COVID-19 affected season.
Thunder captain Callum Ferguson said "at the end of the day, we just weren't good enough" after Sydney faded dramatically with the ball.
"I felt like we had a competitive total. It was a slower wicket than what we've probably had here previously in Manuka, but it was still an even contest I thought," Ferguson said.
"With our attack, I thought we had enough to defend it. At the halfway mark of the Heat's innings, I thought we certainly had put enough on the board if we bowled well in the last 10 innings.
"We didn't execute as well as we had in the previous stages of the tournament, but in fairness to our bowlers there was a bit of rain, a sprinkle, and that can make the difference.
"Some of those slower balls don't hold as much as Heazlett was able to pick up and skew a few of them on the offside.
"One thing they did have was that partnership, that one guy who went on to get 60 odd. We didn't have that in our innings unfortunately, which probably left us a bit short of where we should have got to."
Like Brisbane, the Thunder struggled to get away with the bat and finished their innings 8-158.
Usman Khawaja was lucky to survive the first over when Xavier Bartlett swung the ball in for an LBW, but the umpire denied the call despite it looking plumb.
It meant Bartlett could have had a wicket-maiden to open his account, while Khawaja went on to finish with 28 runs - plus a wardrobe malfunction.
The enormous wicket of Alex Hales went in the fourth over when the leading run-scorer mistimed a Mark Steketee delivery, departing with eight from nine balls.
Mitch Swepson made a deep impact for Brisbane by claiming Alex Ross and Daniel Sams with identical dismissals in the 16th over.
Late boundaries to Ben Cutting (34*) extended the Heat's run-chase to 158, with the allrounder posting four sixes and one four from 18 balls.
In response, the Thunder struck twice early to kick off their defence.
Sams marked his return from injury by bowling opening-batsman Joe Denly for a duck, before Chris Lynn went out for 10 the following over.
Lynn had the measure of Brendan Doggett with two boundaries, but the Heat skipper got greedy and tried to hammer another - with Hales settling underneath the mistimed drive for an easy catch.
All of a sudden the Heat was 2/14.
Heazlett notched his second half-century in the Big Bash to closed out the victory, while Jimmy Peirson finished 43*.
"Jimmy had been playing really well, he's in great form this season. We had full confidence we could lift the run rate in the end," Heazlett said.
"The whole way through we were confident. During the Bash Boost, we started that two-over period really strongly.
"Sams is a great bowler but we were able to get a few boundaries off him early and that lifted the run rate."
Brisbane will meet the Perth Scorchers in 'The Challenger' on Thursday night at Manuka Oval, with Canberra called in to host a 13th Big Bash fixture.
Perth's metropolitan area entered a five-day lockdown on Sunday after Western Australia recorded its first coronavirus case in almost 10 months.
The Scorchers were scheduled to host the knock-out fixture at Perth Stadium, but Premier Mark McGowan's announcement threw those plans into disarray.
The Big Bash team is still in Canberra following their nine-wicket loss to the Sydney Sixers. They were meant to fly back to Perth on Sunday evening, but opted to stay in response to the situation.