BEN MCCLELLAN: Mitch Owen’s century and Matthew Wade-Sam Billings sledging highlights of BBL final

There were two great things about the Hurricanes’ BBL final win on Monday night – Mitchell Owen’s blistering match-winning century and the sledging row between Sam Billings and Matthew Wade.

The first of the two had a much greater influence on the match, but the second played its role as a great supporting act in Hobart’s fairytale maiden title win.

Owen produced a coming-of-age innings and announced himself as a future Australian T20 blaster, overshadowing the man who pioneered opening the batting at a thousand miles an hour – David Warner.

Warner produced a solid 48 alongside Jason Sangha (67) to get the Thunder off to a great start before Hobart were able to peg them back and hold them to a very gettable total of 7-183.

Owen came out of the blocks determined to finish the match a lot faster than the allotted 20 overs.

The match was pretty much over after just four overs with the Hurricanes amassing 74 runs (58 of them Owen’s), nearly half the required total.

The Tasmanian local went on to equal the fastest BBL century before being caught for 108 off 42 balls and, with his job done and Hobart with one hand on the trophy, he walked off to rapturous applause.

Owen’s breakthrough season at the top of the order - 452 runs and a spot in the team of the tournament - plus his man of the match effort in the final again cemented why T20 is such a marketable product.

The exhilarating way it is played is why the fans young and old are flocking back to the stadiums and tuning in to watch.

The Big Bash suffered an identity crisis just before COVID hit by trying to squeeze too much out of the short-form cricket lemon with a seemingly never-ending summer of matches.

Fans switched off as T20 competitions around the world grew diluting the pool of talented players available.

The renaissance of the tournament with a shorter season and aided this year by no Australian short form cricket during January, should be the formula Cricket Australia sets in stone.

And the numbers don’t lie - the six-week competition reached 12 million viewers on Seven and 7Plus Sport with three million people (a 40 per cent increase on last year) tuning in or streaming the final last night.

Cricket fans most likely start watching the Big Bash for the big-name players like Glenn Maxwell and Warner but what has kept them there are the unknown heroes like Owen.

He is part of the “Big Bash generation”, a group of young cricketers who grew up watching the league wanting to emulate their heroes.

Cooper Connolly is the most successful of this generation so far with his success in T20 cricket earning him a spot in the Australian T20 and ODI sides and potentially a baggy green in Sri Lanka tomorrow.

Few pundits would have picked Owen in the top 100 players at the start of the season, but now he is being talked about as likely landing a lucrative IPL contract in India in a few months and, if his form continues, a spot in Australia’s T20 World Cup squad next year.

For the T20 naysayers the sea of purple at Ninja Stadium (RIP Bellerive), with fans screaming their heads off after every Owen six, shows this is a wave best getting on not trying to fight against.

The batting, bowling and fielding skills required to play the game at its highest level make these cricketers the most elite in the world with every ball, misfield and throw a potential precursor to a new plot twist in the game.

And while the young gun stole the show it was a few old bulls who showed the art of the sledge is not dead.

With the advent of miked up players and the stump mike playing a full volume players are conscious their previously private war of words is now broadcast.

Thunder keeper Billings was desperate to find a way for his side to pull off a miracle comeback after Owen departed.

He tried to unnerve his wicketkeeping rival, one in the twilight of his career but also renowned for his master blasting, former Australian gloveman Wade.

It wasn’t quite Michale Clarke telling James Anderson Mitchell Johnson was about to break his “f..king arm”, James Ormond telling Mark Waugh “at least he was the best player in his family” or Javed Miandad and Dennis Lillee almost coming to blows, but it was high quality PG-13 entrainment.

Billings got under Wade’s skin by telling him Ricky Ponting had said he could not play spin, at which Wade took great offence too, and during a break play in play remarked that Billings had inferred he was a “sh.t bloke”.

Channel 7 commentator Ponting was bemused his name had been dragged into the spat, but the sledging did not last long with the Hurricanes soon wrapping up the match in the 15th over.

Wade had the last laugh and dropped to his knees when the winning runs were hit having won his first BBL title at age 38.