Record breaking Perth Scorchers are relishing the prospect of playing BBL finals matches at their home-away-from-home, with star allrounder Mitch Marsh looming as their superhero at Marvel Stadium.
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Perth's six-wicket victory over Brisbane Heat at Marvel on Monday evening was their 11th of the campaign, beating the previous record of 10 since the season was expanded to 14 games back in 2018-19.
As of Monday, the Scorchers had won three more games than any other franchise.
Their ten-point lead is even more impressive given they haven't played a game in Perth since their opening match on December 8.
Since then they traversed the country, playing four matches in Melbourne, two in Hobart and the Gold Coast and one each in Sydney, Canberra, Coffs Harbour, Geelong, and Adelaide.
With the finals series scheduled to be completed before Perth re-opens its borders, the Scorchers have nominated Marvel as their preferred home venue.
They have won all three games there, albeit against the last two teams on the ladder.
Big hitter Marsh has shown a liking for the venue, scoring 86, 42 not out and 59 for 187 runs at an average of 93.5 in his three BBL appearances there this season, winning player of the match each time
"I actually though tonight's wicket was really good," Marsh told Fox Cricket after belting 59 off 34 balls.
"On pace deliveries came on to the bat beautifully, I think its still a really good wicket.
"As always here, slower balls and cutters into the wicket are really good and its starting to spin a little bit, so it makes for a really good cricket wicket.
"I think we've played really well here this year, so hopefully we've got a couple of good finals in us."
They advanced to next Saturday's qualifier, where they will play the second-placed side, almost certainly one of the two Sydney teams, who are level on points with both having a match to play.
Marsh, who missed six BBL games and hadn't played since December 28, showed no signs of rustiness, displaying the brutal power that is his trademark.
He clobbered six fours and three sixes, scoring 35 off the two power surge overs and finishing that section with four successive boundaries.
Marsh has tallied 314 BBL runs this season at an average of 78.5 and a strike rate of 148.
With Marsh and Josh Inglis back after a stint with the Australian squad, and Colin Munro returning from a bout of COVID, Perth fielded their strongest batting line up for several games.
Still to return are English batter Laurie Evans, who broke a toe last week, and Australian Test squad paceman Jhye Richardson.
Australian Associated Press
