The already-depleted Perth Scorchers will be sweating on Laurie Evans’ toe injury after the English import was hurt in Friday’s disappointing six-wicket Jason Gillespie Trophy loss to Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.

Evans will go for scans to determine the extent of his injury after copping the full force of a Harry Conway yorker while top-scoring in the Scorchers’ tournament-low innings of 9-127 with 39 off 21 balls.

In reply, the Strikers chased down their opponents’ sub-par with three overs to spare to finish on 4-130 with Englishman Iain Cockbain (35no off 24) hitting the winning runs to cap off a sparkling debut.

It came after seamer Matthew Kelly and opener Cameron Bancroft returned positive PCR COVID-19 tests and allrounder Ashton Agar also missed the match with a shoulder injury.

New Zealand import Colin Munro is still isolating in Coffs Harbour after contracting the virus last week, leaving 12 fit and available players which was reduced to 11 after Evans’ injury.

Evans was due to take the gloves in the absence of a full-time ‘keeper before Chris Sabburg was forced to step in, while local replacement player Brayden Stepien, who wasn’t in the original 13-player squad, made the dash from a café down the road.

Kelly and Bancroft will miss their final regular-season match against Brisbane at Marvel Stadium with victory needed to secure the minor premiership, but Munro should return and Agar is more likely than unlikely.

The Scorchers at least got the Bash Boost point after keeping their opponents to 1-78 at the 10-over mark, two runs less than what they got.

That became 2-78 when the pick of Perth’s bowlers Aaron Hardie (3-31 off four) struck first ball after drinks, getting rid of Henry Hunt (27 off 23) to give the visitors a sniff.

Hunt combined with Matt Short (34 off 28) for their side’s first half-century opening stand of BBL11 to give the Strikers a platform for back-to-back wins to keep their season alive.

Early, former Scorchers leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed starred with the ball in a player-of-the-match performance, despite struggling with a rib injury.

Ahmed took 3-30 from his spell including a double-wicket over in the 15th, with captain Peter Siddle (2-20 off four) and late-season recruit Henry Thornton (2-30 off four) also important.

The turning point came last ball of the 10th over when Scorchers skipper Ashton Turner (28 off 15), who easily had the best strike rate of any batter and looked like continuing his red-hot form, fell to Thornton after he and Evans took him for 16 off the previous five balls.

The wicket sparked a collapse of 6-27 with the Scorchers going from 2-80 to 8-107 in 34 balls.

The score would have been a lot worse if it wasn’t for a dogged 20-run ninth-wicket stand between Peter Hatzoglou (12no off 13) and Scorchers debutant David Moody (8 off 15).

Hatzoglou, who was also important with the ball, taking 1-24 from four overs, tripled his BBL runs tally in one hit, while Moody had never batted before in his five previous games with Hobart.

The lack of batting depth was evident with Andrew Tye (2 off 4) and Jason Behrendorff (0 off 2) coming in at number seven and eight respectively.

The Scorchers were sent in by Siddle who dismissed Nick Hobson (3 off 9) cheaply first ball of his spell to finish off a tight power play of 1-19.

Opener Kurtis Patterson (25 off 19) hit the first three boundaries of the match before falling to ex-teammate Ahmed one ball after sending him into the stands over mid-wicket for six.

Hardie fell to Siddle for a duck and Sabburg was run out for three after slipping over during a disaster back-end of the innings.