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A stunning last-ball six from 19-year-old prodigy Ollie Peake amid a chorus of boos at a hostile Optus Stadium has delivered Australian cricket fans the timeliest reminder of the quality of batters fast rising through the ranks.
With the future of Australia’s ageing batting line-up a hot topic of discussion right across the country, the Geelong product nervelessly came to the Melbourne Renegades’ rescue right when they needed him most in the Big Bash against the Perth Scorchers on Wednesday night.
Ollie Peake with Sam Elliott after hitting the winning runs against the Scorchers.Credit: Getty Images
“It’s pretty surreal,” said Peake, who headed straight from the ground to the airport bound for Africa, where he will captain Australia at the under-19 World Cup.
“To do it here in front of all the Scorchers fans is pretty special and what you grow up dreaming of doing.
“I had a bit of luck and [I’m] just happy that it all paid off tonight.”
The Scorchers’ fans were seeing red at the business end of the Melbourne chase after Peake was given a reprieve for a contentious non-catch by Perth skipper Ashton Turner.
The visitors were in all sorts of trouble when Peake was given out on-field for 15 in the 17th over when Turner looked to have snared a tumbling catch.
But the third umpire found Turner wasn’t in complete control of the ball when it touched the ground as he fell backwards while trying to steady himself.
Peake went on to record an unbeaten 42, including a premeditated flick-of-the-wrist scoop six over the fine leg fence off the final ball from Aaron Hardie to win the match. Chasing the Scorchers’ 127, and still needing a four off the last ball to win, the Renegades finished on 6-130.
“I’m a bit out of breath, and I’ve got a dry mouth, but that was pretty cool,” said Peake in the aftermath on the Seven coverage.
“Once that run rate [required] got up to 10s, it was pretty clear we had to take the [power] surge.
“A.T. [Turner], being such a good captain, brought their gun bowlers… they’re all gun bowlers, but especially Jhye [Richardson]… on to bowl a few overs through the middle there, and he’s obviously relentless coming off a Test match. We couldn’t really get him away and then [I] just got a bit lucky with that catch and probably should have learnt then to stop trying to force the ball down the ground.
“I was shanking them around, but I was lucky to get a couple behind the wicket and [I’m] just really happy to get the win in the end.”
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Peake explained that he caught the attention of Renegades coach, and ex-Australian star, Cameron White in the dugout in the closing stages of the chase, and the former big-hitting all-rounder was telling him to look for the ramp or scoop shot to the shortest part of the ground.
“Then Sammy [Elliott, who was the not-out batsman at the non-striker’s end] came down and was like, ‘What are you thinking?’ and I was… still a bit oblivious and I was like I’ll just stand still and see if I can smack it, and he’s like, ‘No, ramp it’.
“I was just lucky to get it out of the middle – it was into the wind as well. That was probably playing on my mind a bit – that I didn’t know if I could get it over [the fence].”
After Josh Brown (22) teed off early, the Renegades were cruising at 1-51 from six overs before being restricted to 4-23 from the next eight.
At one stage 50 balls were bowled without a boundary before Peake dominated a 42-run sixth-wicket stand with skipper Will Sutherland (15) and rode his good fortune to finish his BBL campaign on a stunning high.
Peake (centre) was swamped by teammates after the game.Credit: Getty Images
Earlier, Gurinder Sandhu snared 4-28 to take his season tally to 14 wickets at 14.71, moving into top position on the Golden Arm leaderboard.
Hardie (44) was scratchy but top-scored for the Scorchers, who wobbled early and crashed hard late, losing 5-11 from 17 deliveries.
After Finn Allen (8) and Cooper Connolly (3) fell cheaply, Mitch Marsh, who had looked in solid touch, feathered Hassan Khan’s arm-ball to Mohammad Rizwan.
Three wickets fell in Sandhu’s last over as the Scorchers lost 5-16.
Peake, whose father Clinton played for Victoria in the early 2000s, rocketed onto the radar of the Australian selectors in October last year after his match-winning knock steered his state to a win over reigning champions South Australia in the opening match of the Sheffield Shield season. Peake scored an unbeaten 70 in just his fifth first-class game and second at Shield level.
Peake and NSW wunderkind Sam Konstas were also in the Australian team that won last year’s under-19 World Cup.
With AAP
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