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Josh Brown, the opening player for the Brisbane Heat,
unleashed the most ridiculous knock in the history of the BBL finals, thus it
was only natural that his phone remained hot all night.
Celebrities and other athletes showered Brown with
notes praising him for his incredible performance, which captured the attention
of cricket fans worldwide. Understandably, he had trouble sleeping after
leading Heat to victory in the Challenger on the Gold Coast with a
match-winning 140 off 57 balls against Adelaide Strikers.
“It [messages] hasn’t stopped,” Brown told
media in Brisbane on Tuesday. “I haven’t really felt it [sink in] yet. I’m
pretty tired. It was pretty special to do it in a final… for the team and
rewarding for myself.
“To do what I did in a pressure game was
surreal.”
Heat had been the best team during the regular season
and had won the championship. However, there had been concerns regarding their
batting order, which had been completely discarded prior to the finals due to
multiple withdrawals, including the departure of batting imports Sam Billings
and Colin Munro for the ILT20 in the United Arab Emirates.
In their opening loss of the year, the redesigned Heat
were only able to produce 128 points at Optus Stadium against the Perth
Scorchers. They then lost the Qualifier by 39 runs after being destroyed for
113 by the Sydney Sixers on a two-paced Gold Coast surface.
Brown made a shaky 15 off 22 balls against the Sixers,
falling short of his expectations to rise to the top of the order. He opened
the innings by playing out a maiden, struggling time and again to get bat on
ball before nicking off to seamer Ben Dwarshuis to end his suffering.
“I played and missed at everything, swung too
hard,” Brown said.
Brown regrouped by focusing on slowing down his swing
and making sure he watched the ball closely. Advice from Heat assistant coach
Darren Lehmann rang in his ear too.
“Don’t change your intent, but hit the ball where
it is meant to go,” Lehmann told Brown ahead of the Strikers match.