Chris Waters: Jason Gillespie returns to Yorkshire with T20 credit in the bank

Having lost by 87 runs last year to Sydney Sixers, it was a case of history repeating as Sydney Thunder this time inflicted the damage with an eight-wicket win with 14 balls to spare.

Strikers, who had won six out of eight league games during the 2014-15 campaign, won seven out of eight this time before falling again in their first knockout match.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for Jason Gillespie and Adil Rashid, the Yorkshire duo who did much to guide Strikers into the semis this time: Gillespie as the franchise’s coach, and Rashid as a leg-spinner who lit up the Twenty20 tournament.

Once the dust has settled, however, both Gillespie – whose main role is that of Yorkshire first-team coach – and Rashid can reflect on a job well done.

Not overly blessed with star names, the Strikers were not expected to pull up trees despite Gillespie’s talismanic return to his native city.

To win seven out of eight group games, therefore, represented not only a statistical improvement in Gillespie’s first season as Strikers’ coach, but also an unexpected one to the bookmaking fraternity, which generally had his side down as fifth favourites in the eight-team event.

However, it is an improvement that would have come as no surprise whatsoever to the good folk of Yorkshire, with Gillespie having proved himself one of the top coaches in the game en route to helping the club to back-to-back County Championship titles.

Yorkshire’s recent record in the Championship is incredible; they have lost only four of 64 games since Gillespie was appointed.

But their T20 statistics are frustrating.

Yorkshire have only once reached T20 Finals Day in the 13-year history of the tournament (in Gillespie’s first season in 2012), and it was for that reason that the club allowed the former Australia fast bowler to sign a two-year deal with Adelaide last April in the belief that it would be mutually beneficial.

Gillespie might not have a Big Bash winner’s medal to bring back this time, but he will certainly return to Headingley with ideas and experiences that Yorkshire hope will have a knock-on effect on their own T20.

However, if yesterday’s game at Adelaide Oval proved anything, it is that nothing is predictable or guaranteed in the sport’s shortest format.

In stark contrast to a Championship match, played over four days, anything and everything can happen in the course of a 20-over thrash.

Strikers might have been the best side in the group stages, but all it effectively took to down them was one innings.

Granted, the hosts’ 159-7 yesterday was slightly below-par, with Rashid giving that total respectability by striking 14 off the last three balls, but Usman Khawaja’s unbeaten 104 for Thunder was well above-par, proving once again that if someone comes off on any given day, that is all it takes to determine the outcome.

Yorkshire should certainly benefit from Gillespie’s involvement in the Big Bash event, but T20 comes down to such very fine margins.

One inspired innings, or one inspired bowling performance, and any side can easily win or lose a knockout match.

Indeed, Yorkshire lost the final of the T20 Cup in 2012 despite winning seven of their 10 group games, the best record of any team in the country that summer.

So, Gillespie’s Big Bash adventure is over for the time being, and he returns to Yorkshire with more credit in the bank.

Rashid, who took 16 wickets at 14.12 in the tournament and performed splendidly, fully justified England’s decision to allow him to take part after they left him out of the Test series in South Africa, to where he now travels for the one-day series.

After that, the 27-year-old will be hoping to play a key role for England in the World T20 in India, and he could hardly have warmed up much better for that competition.

In the final analysis, without Rashid and Gillespie, the bookmakers’ predictions for the Strikers’ chances may well have been correct.

With them, however, it was no surprise that Strikers enjoyed an overwhelmingly successful tournament.