The Perth Scorchers have extended their lead of BBL titles over any other team after their win on Sunday night against the Sydney Sixers.

They now hold six trophies, doubling the next best team and grand final opponent, also holding a record of 4-2 in grand finals favouring the Scorchers.

Expert recruiting and importing international talent has played a huge part in Perth’s success, with new additions such as Englishmen David Payne and Laurie Evans, as well as New Zealander Finn Allen, adding depth to the squad.

SportFM spoke to the WA Cricket General Manager of High Performance and Elite Teams, Kade Harvey, this morning.

Harvey made note of the shift the club has seen over the years from a heavily defensive bowling side to now a team that now plays aggressively with the bat.

“We had a very strong defensive bowling line-up, so I think the shift to the batting has been happening for a while,” he said.

“We probably found asking overseas batters to open the batting at Optus was quite challenging. We sort of felt like we made a bit of an exception with Finn because of the way he played.”

Finn is at the end of his two year contract with the Scorchers, and Harvey notes it is in the best interest of Perth to keep him west.

“Based on the rules, we weren’t able to re-sign him through this window, we have to wait for the embargo to finish but we’re certainly going to discuss it and he’s now going to be a player in far more demand than what we was two years ago.”

“We have no doubt other teams and other competitions will be wanting to chase him but we’d certainly love to have him back.”

Laurie Evans is another import that has had a huge impact on the team, adding value with both bat and ball.

“For an overseas player he’s probably had one of the strongest connections to our group and probably developed the most passion for an overseas player coming into the tournament,” he said.

“The luxury of having him batting at seven and, on reflection actually not having to do a lot, is relative to what he’s done in the past or what an overseas player might do was just a bonus for us. But his enthusiasm, his energy and what he brings to the Scorchers is really impressive for an overseas player and how much he’s brought into it.”

It was England’s David Payne who stole the spotlight in Sunday’s match, taking three wickets and conceiving only 18 runs to lead the Scorchers to their sixth grand final win.

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