Michael Klinger smacked 49 off 33 balls but the rest of his teammates faltered as the Perth Scorchers were restricted to 7-146 in their Twenty20 BBL clash with the Adelaide Strikers at the WACA Ground.
Klinger, who played for the Strikers last summer, cracked seven boundaries to make up for the slow start made by new recruit Michael Carberry.
Carberry struggled to find his groove, with the Englishman playing and missing a host of times on the way to 27 off 35 balls.
At one point, Carberry’s bat went flying around 15 metres in the air to short fine leg after losing his grip on one wild swing.
Strikers paceman Kane Richardson finished with 3-31 off his four overs, while Trent Lawford (0-15 off three) and spinner Johan Botha (1-25 off four) kept the run rate down.
Richardson was on a hat-trick after removing Ashton Turner and Klinger off consecutive balls, with the double blow putting a dent to the Scorchers’ bid to build a score in excess of 160.