Nathan Ellis's hamstring injury and a pivotal regular-season loss have left the Hobart Hurricanes to ponder what might have been after the Sydney Sixers dashed their dream of back-to-back BBL titles.
Steve Smith and Joel Davies were the key men as the Sixers powered past the champions and into the final against Perth with a 57-run win at the SCG on Friday.
The Hurricanes were all out for 141 in the challenger final, with a 48-run stand between Ben McDermott and Beau Webster the sole partnership of significance.
"We haven't really nailed it with the bat all season," said stand-in captain McDermott.
"It's probably one of those nights where we were due to bail our bowlers out of the crap, so to speak. But not our night."
Ellis had a scan on Friday morning and was subsequently ruled out of the Hurricanes' BBL finals tilt to rest for the Twenty20 World Cup.
McDermott admitted Ellis's absence had a "huge" bearing on the result at the SCG, after the paceman also missed Wednesday's knockout defeat of the Melbourne Stars.
"Death bowling wins you tournaments and when you lose one of the best in the world, in my opinion, it's going to hurt," McDermott said.
Ellis's absence was felt most keenly as the Hurricanes struggled for answers while bowling to Smith, who again top-scored with 65.
Hobart were down another bowling option as they played Chris Jordan, despite an ankle issue preventing the Englishman from sending down any overs of his medium pace.
McDermott said that, in hindsight, they might have played legspinner Mac Wright on the spin-friendly pitch.
"But Chris has finished games before, he's got the power game. He can clear the ropes. I think it was the right call," he added.
The defining moment in the Hurricanes' season was their three-run loss to the Brisbane Heat in their final match of the regular season.
A win against eventual bottom-four side Brisbane would have confirmed top spot for the Hurricanes and a chance to progress straight to the decider by winning a home qualifying final.
Instead, the Hurricanes were made to play two sudden-death games in three days, the second of those on the road against the Sixers.
"That Brisbane Heat game is always to be a talking point, no matter what happened in our season from there, whether we went on to win it or we bow out in the semi," McDermott said.
"You can always look back on that and go, 'We probably should have had a home qualifier'."
