Steve Smith’s Sydney Sixers humbled by Perth Scorchers in BBL Final 2025-26

Perth Scorchers celebrating a Sixers wicket in BBL 2025-26 final [Source: @ScorchersBBL/x]The Perth Scorchers romped to their sixth BBL title victory, and their first in three years by humbling longtime rivals Sydney Sixers in a lop-sided final of the 2025-26 season. Jhye Richardson and David Payne set the tone for Scorchers’ dominant evening with a blistering wicket-taking spree in the first half of the game. Here, we take a look at the entire highlights from the final match of the BBL 2025-26 season between Perth Scorchers and Sydney Sixers, as it panned out at the Optus Stadium in Perth on Sunday, January 25. Sydney Sixers kneel before Jhye Richardson, David Payne Getting invited to bat first, Sydney Sixers lost opener Daniel Hughes for just seven in the second over of the match to Perth Scorchers quick Jhye Richardson. In-form Steve Smith also fell for a below par 24 from 13 balls on the big day after he was caught plumb in front of stumps by Aaron Hardie in the final over of the powerplay. With both openers gone at 34 inside the first six overs, number three Josh Philippe and captain Moises Henriques struck back with a 32-run partnership for the third wicket. Shaping identical 24-run knocks each, the two cricketers steered the Sydney Sixers till 66-2 around the halfway stage of the innings before David Payne had Philippe caught-and-bowled with a cunning slower delivery. Henriques shared another 28 runs with Lachlan Shaw (14 off 12) to take the Sixers near the 100-run mark. Having seemingly gained some momentum at 94-3, Payne struck back for the Perth Scorchers with the quick wickets of both Henriques and Shaw to claim sensational figures of 3-18 in his four overs. Sixers falter in slog overs to collapse to 132 all outJack Edwards, Ben Manenti and the rest of the tail all fell for single-digit scores, but a late 19 from Joel Davies eventually steered the Sydney Sixers to a respectable 132. Apart from David Payne, new ball paceman Jhye Richardson also picked up three wickets in the innings, including two in the slog overs to seize figures of 3-32. Mahli Beardman struck twice in the final over of the Sixers innings with the wickets of Manenti and Sean Abbott to collect 2-29. Mitchell Marsh, Allen set up big Scorchers win Chasing 133, Perth Scorchers openers raced to 47-0 by the end of the first five overs of the innings. By eight overs, the Scorchers had charted 80 without losing a single wicket. Blistering opener Finn Allen bludgeoned 36 of those runs from 22 balls with four fours and a six before becoming Scorchers’ first casualty of the run chase, as the New Zealander was toppled by Sixers pace demon Mitchell Starc. Aaron Hardie at number three failed to keep up with the early momentum as the cricketer fell for just a run-a-ball five in the following over against Sean Abbott. Abbott (2-19) also got rid of a well-set Mitchell Marsh at 44 from 43 balls, before Jack Edwards removed Scorchers skipper Ashton Turner for just two in quick succession. Despite sustaining a couple of late wickets, Josh Inglis compiled 29* off 26 balls and notched up the winning hit for the Perth Scorchers with six wickets and 15 balls to spare.