Sport is cruel. So incredibly, incredibly cruel.
As finales go, this would have been up there with the very, very best.
Australian legend Brett Lee was playing his last ever cricket game this afternoon, as his Sydney Sixers took on the Perth Scorchers in the final of the Big Bash league.
Lee stepped up to bowl the final over of the game, and but for a mistake from one of his teammates, it could have been one of sport’s most memorable send offs.
With three balls remaining and the Scorchers requiring just one run, Lee dug deep, taking the stumps of both Nathan Coulter-Nile and Sam Whiteman to set-up a shot at a hat-trick on the final ball of his career.
Lee was bowling to Yasir Arafat, needing to take a wicket or force no score to take it to a super-over, and when Arafat nudged one short on the leg-side, it looked like a simple run-out would wrap up the hat-trick. But incredibly, Moises Henrique at the wicket mishandled the ball fielded to him, allowing Arafat to slide in for the winning run, which left Lee and the rest of the Sixers absolutely devastated.
Afterwards, Lee summed it up in two words. “That’s cricket”.
