Heat upset Hurricanes in thriller

Brisbane Heat 4 for 201 (Hayden 76, Robinson 44) beat Hobart Hurricanes 4 for 198 (Birt 74, Owais Shah 69) by 3 runs

The Brisbane Heat have pulled off the upset of the season by holding on for a nail-biting three-run victory over the previously undefeated Hobart Hurricanes at the Gabba.

It was top playing bottom leading in to the game but it looked anything like that as the winless Heat got off to a flyer, scoring a season-best 71 off the Powerplay, thanks to Matthew Hayden's 76 off 51 balls and Andrew Robinson's 44 off 28.

The pair put on 100 for the opening wicket in just 8.4 overs before Robinson was run out by an athletic piece of fielding from Rana Naved-ul-Hasan.

Part-timer Rhett Lockyear removed the dangerous Daniel Christian for 8 before skipper Peter Forrest's 33 off 18 helped the hosts reach the highest score in the competition this season, 201.

Jonathan Wells scored 24 off 18 and Phil Jaques got 27 off 22 to get the visitors off to a steady start, but several tight overs late in the Powerplay from Roelof van der Merwe and Michael Neser had the Hurricanes well behind the required-rate, which peaked at more than 14 runs per over.

Nathan Hauritz then dropped a simple catch that Travis Birt had looped up to him at long-off when on just 31. Birt went on to make the Heat pay, scoring 74 off 36 balls, and combining with England international Owais Shah (69 off 44) for a blistering 141-run partnership to give the Hurricanes a chance at victory.

The visitors required 16 off the last over and when Shah hit youngster Alistair McDermott for a boundary followed by a six, the impossible run-chase looked like it might just come off; the Hurricanes needed just four off two balls.

But McDermott had other ideas, fielding brilliantly off his own bowling to dismiss Birt, who had been backing up, before dismissing Shah off the last ball of the innings, caught by Christian on the rope, to leave the visitors agonisingly short of an unlikely victory.

The Hurricanes remain in top spot, with Shane Warne's Melbourne Stars to visit Tasmania on Monday, while the Heat - despite their victory - remain anchored to the bottom of the ladder with an away fixture to the Melbourne Renegades their next challenge.