Adelaide Strikers coach Jason Gillespie has broken down how his side cracked the code to beat Perth Scorchers at their formidable home ground, bundling the champions out of the finals.

Sticking to the method that catapulted them into fourth spot with a late-season winning streak, the Strikers picked three frontline spinners and used part-timer Matt Short.

At Optus Stadium, where teams fear picking even two genuine slow bowlers, Adelaide took eight of their 10 wickets with spin.

Short opened the bowling, then they turned to leg-spinning pair Lloyd Pope and Cameron Boyce after the power-play and while Scorchers captain Aaron Hardie admitted the Strikers picked the team they expected them to, the home side’s middle-order was hapless against the pace-off method.

Pope’s four wickets landed him player-of-the-match accolades and Boyce took 3-20. Ben Manenti also bowled an over, while Short took a diving catch to remove Nick Hobson off his own bowling.

“We genuinely believed the team we picked, from a bowling perspective, was a really good match-up against the Scorchers,” Gillespie said.

“We knew they had a lot of left-handers, hence a couple of finger spin options that spin away from the lefties, and obviously our leg-spinners have been performing really well this season.

“They both bowl two different paces, so we just thought that would create a challenge for the Scorchers.

“They like pace on, they are really strong hitting the seamers, so we thought lets take the air out of the ball and make them make the pace.”

Hardie felt his team didn’t execute as they would have liked with the ball and that his side let the Strikers get away after having them 6-95 after 13 overs.

“I felt like we weren’t at our best with the ball today,” he said.

“At the 10-over mark, if you offered us 150 we would probably have liked to have kept them to a few less.

“There was a little bit in the deck, it obviously took a bit of spin.”

While the Scorchers crash out and their time as champions ends for the first time since early 2022, the Strikers move to the Gold Coast, where they face Brisbane Heat on Monday night for a spot in the decider.