Since the multi-coloured reboot of Cricket Australia’s T20 Big Bash League in 2011 the annual tournament has delivered plenty of iconic moments. From legends of the game coming out of retirement to give the league some instant credibility to gravity-defying catches, to world-class batting displays with balls soaring to the greatest heights possible the action has been non-stop.
So I decided to go through the history books and sort through all the big moments and see which one’s can be considered the very best. Keep in mind, I kept this list to strictly cricketing moments, so while they deserve honourable mentions, Rob Quiney reviving a seagull, a security guard taking the smoothest catch ever and kids chomping down on entire watermelons won’t be making an appearance!
Let’s count them down, shall we?
10: ben McDermott scores back-to-back centuries
A BBL century is something that doesn’t come along very often, with an average of around 5 occurring each season, so think how unlikely it is for a player to score two in succession. Ben McDermott is a player that flew under everybody’s radar for years, consistently scoring solid scores and sporadically appearing in Australia’s short-over teams. However, during the COVID-struck season of 2021-22 McDermott arrived as one of the BBL’s premiere opening batsmen.
His first came on a Monday night in Tasmania, smashing 110 – not out off of 60 balls to help his team charge home and win by 7 wickets. But it was his second, just two nights later that really set the Australian cricketing scene on fire.
Opening the batting and scoring a tame 31 off of 33 balls to start, he soon heated up with his remaining 88 runs coming off of only 34 balls. Boundaries galore came in this 6 over stretch with 9 4’s and 9 6’s and a strike rate of 195.38. He was run out for 127 on the final ball, but the ‘Canes had set a huge 207 runs which Renegades had no chance of chasing. McDermott went on to finish as the tournament’s top run scorer with 577.
9: Glenn Maxwell leaves it on the stumps
Maybe this is just iconic for this writer, as I personally was in attendance for this match and the young 12-year-old in me was psyched up to see his Supercoach captain Glenn Maxwell have a big inning. Colour me shocked, surprised and saddened by what came next.
“Oh my goodness gracious me!” “I’m Stunned, I’m Speechless” “That is the most extraordinary dismissal I have ever seen in the game.”
Ryan Duffield charges in and bowls a fairly standard in-swinger that was always looking likely to be on target, but a pretty simple ball that could be played at by Maxwell. But ‘The Big Show’ had instead chosen to charge down the pitch and not even play a single shot and watch the ball rocket into the stumps.
Little did we know that the passing of good mate Phil Hughes just a month prior had left Maxwell ‘hating the game’ and this incident only made it worse. Luckily, Maxwell was able to work through his personal mental health issues and put it all in the rearview mirror.
8: Marcus stoinis goes big!
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Even though this record no longer stands, this inning goes down as one of the classiest innings ever produced in the game of T20 Cricket.
From the second Stoinis reached the crease it was clear he was going to be in for a big one, crunching a 4 off just his 4th ball. From there, it was raining boundaries at the MCG with 13 4’s and 8 6’s being launched over the ropes at a Strike Rate of 186.07. It was as theatrical as they come, with every time the Sixers looked like they had slowed him down, Stoinis would just hit another 6 right back over their heads.
He reached the century mark in just 60 balls and then in the next 19 he piled on another 44 to finish on 144-not out. Not only this but Stoinis and teammate Hilton Cartwright managed to smash the partnership record for the league as well, smashing 207 runs off of 19 overs. At the time, this went down as the 3rd best innings ever in Australian cricketing history under the T20 format and it wasn’t broken until Glenn Maxwell scored 154 in 2022, funnily enough with Stoinis sat at the other end of the pitch laughing the entire time.
7: Malinga’s got 6 at the waca!
While the title of the list takes inspiration from a similarly impressive 6 Wicket Haul (Scott Boland at the MCG for those playing at home), Lasith Malinga’s was the original.
This one will be remembered fondly for those who had Malinga as their Fantasy captain that week, sadly I was not one of them, as the Sri Lankan bagged a record chunk of points, meaning anybody that had him would have won bragging rights that week.
That aside, it was incredible to see Malinga strap the entire Melbourne Stars team on his back and turn them into passengers to his brilliance. Bamboozling slower balls, misguiding swingers and stump-crunching yorkers, all delivered with his iconic slinging flare. He was just on fire, there was nothing in the world that could stop him that night and the world was reminded why he was THE premiere white ball bowler in the sport. Finishing on tidy figures of 6-7 (Coincidentally, the same figures Boland picked up) Malinga had decimated the Perth Scorchers line-up and caused them to post only 69 runs for the Stars to chase down, which thanks to some strong opening batters, and some rain, they did easily.
Somehow, Malinga couldn’t finish as the tournament’s top wicket-taker, finishing 2nd on 13 Wickets off of 7 games, with a staggering average of 10.69 and economy rate of 4.96
6: Chris Lynn Hits it on the roof
Shaun Tait can fondly be remembered as cricket’s answer to Charlie Sheen’s character Ricky Vaughn of ‘Major League’ fame, as his bowling was often blisteringly fast and quite erratic, hence he inherited Vaughn’s nickname of ‘Wild Thing’, after all, he has broken the stumps in half on multiple occasions (rumours even circled that he’d done it with a tennis ball in practice). So when Tait sent a 148 km/hr ball down the pitch towards Lynn, the crowd braced for impact, but not the sort of impact they got. Without hesitation, Lynn pivoted, swung his bat and the ball was sent straight out of the Gabba!
While this had been done before, twice, those instances didn’t have 35,000 screaming fans roaring with approval at the incredible site that they had just witnessed. To top it all off, the usually emotionless, calculated Lynn broke his focus for a split second to crack a smirk and a smug wink at Tait as the two met eyes.
My goodness, what a showman.
5: the best catch you will ever see
There have been many great catches in the history of the BBL, Jordan Silk immediately comes to mind with his duo of entertaining catches, as well as Jake Fraser-McGurk’s screamer on the boundary in 2021, but one catch, in particular, stands head and shoulders above the pack.
Rashid Khan had delivered a somewhat harmless ball down the pitch that was quickly despatched by Dwayne Bravo in a hit that looked like a certain 6. However, Ben Laughlin wasn’t having it.
He managed to find himself under the ball ready to take the catch and launched at the ball and took a screamer, however, he turned and found himself just steps from the boundary. With too much momentum, he needed to get rid of the ball to avoid it being a 6 anyways so he tossed it back into the field. The ball, magically, was able to travel a good 25 metres to the side, allowing teammate Jake Weatherald enough time to sprint over and take the most miraculous diving catch the cricketing world had seen for quite some time.
The clips of the double-team act went viral and it forever became a moment that would live on in history, especially since they pull the highlight out just about every year whenever they talk about any of the men involved.
4: F*** YOU MATE!
Again, another moment that is probably being seen with rose-tinted glasses, as this writer, as a young boy, sat mesmerised in front of the television watching this all unfold live.
The King of Spin, Shane Warne, may he rest in peace, was mic’d up as per usual and walking the commentators upstairs through his over until Jamaican Marlon Samuels came on strike. All of a sudden, the usual jovial Warne was dead serious. After the over had come to an end, it was on, Warnie walked straight up to Samuels and ripped in, much to the delight of the viewers at home who could hear what he was saying.
For context, Warne wasn’t happy the Samuels had tugged at David Hussey’s shirt in the previous innings, seemingly joking that he would pull him back and stop a run. So in his fiery tone, Warne challenged the Renegade man – “You wanna pull some more people Marlon?” before the sounds of a whole-hearted, Aussie as-ever, “F*** YOU MATE!” rang out across television screens nationwide. Safe to say the pause and rewind buttons got a workout in not just my household that night. To make matters even more entertaining, Warne chucked the ball at him in the very next over, which caused Samuels to send his bat flying in anger and the two locked horns once more. Turns out Warne only wanted to get a rise out of Samuels so he would throw his wicket away.
Pure cricketing theatre, as only the late, great Shane Warne could produce.
3: Travis Head’s New Year’s Eve Miracle
To sum up this moment, it is pure Hollywood movie-type stuff from Travis Head.
Adelaide was playing Sydney in a New Year’s Eve clash in a packed-out Adelaide Oval and the hometown Strikers needed 13 to win with 6 balls left to play and the then 22 years young Travis Head, who wasn’t a household name at that point had managed to play out of his skin and was sitting on 83 off 50 and full of confidence. So, he didn’t falter in attempting to send Sean Abbott’s first ball over the rope and into the stands, which he did with emphatic success. The fans were brought to their feet and little did they know, they wouldn’t get an opportunity to sit down again.
The very next ball, Head launched another one into the crowd for a second straight 6 and the fans reached a fever pitch. Now with only 1 run to get off of 4 balls, surely Head would just bat a single and run to victory, but no, that wasn’t showy enough. Abbott tried a bouncer and Head managed to top edge it all the way over the rope for a third straight 6! Head had a century; the Strikers had won and cue the fireworks followed by a huge celebration in Adelaide to bring in 2016. You couldn’t have written it better and best of all, it is a moment that well and truly kickstarted Head’s journey to Australian Cricket stardom.
2: Chris Gayle Breaks Half-Century Record
Don’t blush baby! Wait, no, not that moment.
Entering the Renegades’ final BBL match of the season and coming off THAT controversial interview with Mel McLaughlin, the ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle was determined to go out with a bang, and that he did. Walking to the crease knowing that if the Renegades didn’t chase down 170 off of 16 overs or less, his BBL career was more than likely over, Gayle threw caution to the wind and went for it and 12 balls later, he was a record breaker.
From the very first 6 the crowd and the commentators were sent into raptures, that is just the effect that Gayle has, little did we know what was going to follow. 6 after 6, after 6, after 6, after 6 followed and all of a sudden Gayle was on 44 off of 10 balls. With every swing, the crowd got rowdier and the commentators in the booth devolved into giddy children giggling at the silliness of how absurdly insane the situation was. He just wouldn’t quit. It was so insane that Kevin Pietersen let a hearty “OH MY DAYS!” ring out, probably the most iconic iteration of the catchphrase for the BBL player turned commentator.
A final 6 saw him tie the record Yuvraj Singh’s T20 record for fastest half-century of 12 balls. Even though he was never seen again in the BBL, Chris Gayle’s finest innings will never, ever be forgotten.
1: Brett Lee’s Dramatic Retirement
If a cricket game was ever to make you cry, then this was the one.
Brett Lee is an icon of Australian cricket, so when he was one of the legends announced for the BBL fans were excited to see what he could bring to the table. In true Binga fashion, he hadn’t missed a step and was still able to produce his rocket yorkers and ferocious bouncers. For the first 4 years of the BBL, Lee was the poster boy, until he decided to retire at the end of the 2014-15 season and when the Sixers made the final a picture book story was written. However, this story would not have a happy ending.
The Scorchers had gotten to the point where they needed just 1 run off the final 3 balls and looked to be confirmed as champions, but Lee wasn’t done just yet. He charged in and delivered a trademark yorker that smashed the stumps and sent Nathan Coulter-Nile packing and a classic chainsaw celebration ensued. Good thing he got the saw going because the very next ball he bowled out Sam Whiteman with a thunderous pace. Now the stage was set, the final ball of his career, he’s on a hattrick, could he send it to a super-over?
He storms in, the ball is delivered, Yasir Arafat gets bat on and begins his sprint to the other end, he’s out for all money, they’d done it! Until Moises Henriques drops the ball at the stumps and the Scorchers get home and win. Lee gets down on his knees and buries his head in his arms, tears streaming down the cheek of many fans in the stand as the icon had taken his final stand. Iconic end to an iconic career, but oh what could have been?
That’s my Top 10 Big Bash Moments of All Time!
Have I missed any? Let me know in the comments what your favourite moment of all time is!