Big Bash League records have tumbled on an extraordinary night at the Gabba, with the Brisbane Heat producing an extraordinary chase to defeat the Perth Scorchers in a match filled with chaos, carnage and more runs than any game in the competition’s history.
Hundreds from Matt Renshaw and Jack Wildermuth, the first time in BBL history an innings has featured two centuries, saw the Heat successfully run down the Scorchers’ score of 257 – at the time the second-highest total ever posted in the competition – with a ball to spare, with a 25,000-strong crowd at the Gabba left in raptures.
In the process, they secured the third-highest run chase in all T20s – and by some distance the BBL’s best ever – while the 515 runs and 18 sixes collectively crunched on a night to forget for the bowlers are both tournament records too.
Renshaw and Wildermuth also entered the record books, with their 212-run partnership for the second wicket – made off 93 balls and after opener Colin Munro was dismissed off the first ball of the innings – the highest in BBL history, and the tenth-best in all T20 cricket.
Brisbane Heat pull off the impossible, chasing down a 258-run target. They defeat the Perth Scorchers by eight wickets.
— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) December 19, 2025
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The Scorchers were left to rue a disastrous night in the field, with captain Ashton Turner dropping two catches, including a sitter that spared Wildermuth on 42; while Jhye Richardson should have had Renshaw caught at mid-on for 20 but for the costliest no-ball in BBL history.
“I still don’t really believe it,” Renshaw, adjudged player of the match ahead of Wildermuth for his 102 off 51 balls, told Fox Cricket after the historic win.
“Bit of a pinch me [moment], a lot of goosebumps … it was an incredible effort. I think a lot of people probably put us out of the contest, and I think probably we did as well when we lost that first ball [wicket].
“Just having ‘Muth’ [Wildermuth] at the other end, I’ll definitely be sharing this [player of the match award] with him, he deserves probably half of it, probably more!
“I had a hit in the indoors [nets] in the innings break, and I hit them so bad! It was one of those ones, we had a bit of luck on our side tonight as well. We just keep it simple – we knew the wicket was pretty good, because they did what they did, and that sort of gives you confidence you can do it.”
Having developed a reputation at the start of his career as a dour opening batter, including through an early stint at Test level, Renshaw hit back at his critics.
“T20 for me was always something I wasn’t good at, apparently. It’s enjoyable to be able to do something like that,” he said.
Wildermuth’s 54-ball 110 came with a T20 batting average of just over 10 and no 50-plus scores heading in, including a duck in the Heat’s previous match of BBL15 against the Melbourne Renegades.
But having been moved to open the batting for the tournament, the all-rounder has well and truly made that position his own.
“I’m still in a little bit of shock, to be honest,” Wildermuth told Fox Cricket after the match.
“Going into the sheds at half time there, we had a few to get – sitting here winning the game is pretty surreal. to be honest.
“We didn’t speak too much [in the innings break], to be honest … we just had a crack.
“Bad night to be a bowler, to be honest!
“For the Heat to give me an opportunity at the top – I’ve been sitting there when we won the premiership a couple of years ago, the boys had a great season last year, we had some really good players playing. So to finally get my opportunity, I’m stoked just to be out here in front of my home crowd and my friends and family.”
The Heat looked set for a humiliating night at the office after the Scorchers blasted a team record 257 runs from their 20 overs on a pristine Gabba pitch, including hitting a BBL record 18 sixes from the innings.
New Zealander Finn Allen (79 off 38 balls) and young gun Cooper Connolly (77 off 37) did the lion’s share of the damage, adding 142 runs in just 63 balls for the second wicket; while Test spinner Matt Kuhnemann leaked a disastrous 60 runs from his four overs – the most runs ever conceded by a spinner in the BBL.
To add injury to insult, captain Nathan McSweeney suffered a leg injury late in the innings dropping a high chance from Nick Hobson, limping from the field.
The Heat’s already remote chances looked essentially zero when Colin Munro edged Jhye Richardson to gully off the first ball of their innings; but Renshaw, promoted to number three due to McSweeney’s injury, and Wildermuth had other ideas.
Clubbing nine sixes apiece – matching the Scorchers’ haul – the pair took a formidable pace attack to the cleaners, with Brody Couch (0/59 off three overs) particularly savaged.
Riding their luck, they added 212 before Renshaw was run out by a matter of millimetres after hesitating while coming back for a second run, leaving Wildermuth to continue the onslaught on his own.
With Max Bryant (28 from 16) also batting aggressively, the closest the Heat came to faltering was in a dramatic final over.
Needing nine runs for victory at the outset, Bryant should have been run out at the striker’s end after a suicidal single off the third ball of the over, only for Aaron Hardie to miss all three stumps from close range.
Further drama ensued off the over’s fourth ball, with Wildermuth and Bryant scampering through for three, only for the latter to retire hurt with an arm injury after slipping onto it while turning for the third.
A misfield, though, would prove the final dagger to the Scorchers’ heart, Wildermuth fittingly hitting the winning runs for perhaps the BBL’s most remarkable ever triumph.
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