Watch: At the Gabba, Brisbane Heat Spencer Johnson started his BBL career with a fantastic first over on debut.

Earlier this season, Brisbane Heat had given out a BBL cap to Josh Brown, a virtually unheard-of top-order batter, just before his 29th birthday. In his second match, Brown scored a fifty inside the powerplay against the Sydney Sixers.

Now, against Perth Scorchers, they picked Johnson, whose outings had been restricted to three average outings (3-162 in 23 overs) in List A cricket, apart from appearances in the 2nd XI for the state.

Batting first, Brisbane posted 155-6 despite no one going past 36, while Jason Behrendorff returned 4-0-21-3. They then opened bowling with Michael Neser and Xavier Bartlett, and the latter took out Cameron Bancroft in the second over. Johnson’s turn came in third over. At that point, the Scorchers were 19-1, with Stephen Eskinazi (7) and Aaron Hardie (4) at the crease.

Johnson’s first ball was on a length, outside off-stump, and Eskinazi swung and missed. The next ball was closer to Eskinazi – and too quick for him to boot. He swung and missed again, and wicketkeeper Jimmy Peirson had to collect it next to his face.

“Oh, that’s a very good action, I like this, I’m super impressed by the first two deliveries,” quipped Brett Lee on air.

“Sorry, [from] where do you keep unearthing these bowlers?” asked Isa Guha.

Eskinazi cut the third ball to backward point. Johnson continued with the line, and this time Eskinazi shuffled across, trying to scoop over Peirson – and missed.

Eskinazi missed the next ball too, but this time it was a tad too wide outside the off-stump, and was called a wide. Eskinazi picked up two twos to round off the over.

The Heat lost Eskinazi on 25, but Hardie (65* in 45 balls) and Josh Inglis (67* in 35) saw them home inside 17 overs. Johnson finished with figures of 3.2-0-22-0.

Watch Spencer Johnson’s first over in the BBL here:

First over in the @BBL by left-arm quick Spencer Johnson and Brett Lee was VERY impressed!

What did you think? #BBL12 pic.twitter.com/sUzWX7bUTr

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 11, 2023