HOBART saved its best Big Bash performance on its home turf for when it mattered most on Thursday night to power its way into the semi-finals and set up a showdown with the unbeaten Melbourne Stars. In a carbon copy affair to 12 months ago - needing to defeat the Brisbane Heat at Blundstone Arena to sneak into fourth spot - the Hurricanes erased the disappointment of last year to record a 40-run victory in front of 10,863 fans. On the back of another sublime knock from opener Ben Dunk (87 from 53 balls), the home side amassed a BBL ground record 7-209 before restricting Brisbane to 8-169 in reply. Dunk cracked six boundaries and three sixes, swelling his tournament leading total to 348 runs at an average of 49.7 and a strike rate of 146.8. He shared a 98-run first wicket stand with skipper Tim Paine (47 from 28), which yet again laid the perfect platform for the latter overs. And after several failures, a misfiring middle order finally cashed in to finish off the foundation set for it. Jon Wells (12), Shoaib Malik (14) and Travis Birt (11) may not have set the world on fire but they wasted few balls in their cameos, before Evan Gulbis, who replaced Ben Hilfenhaus in the starting 11, iced the innings with a 12-ball 22. Leading wicket taker Cameron Gannon took 3-42, while Test hero Ryan Harris (2-42) snared both his wickets in the final over. The Heat got their chase off to a flyer, racing to 0-46 after five overs before English import Dimitri Mascarenhas (2-42) turned the contest on its head. The crafty medium pacer removed the dangerous Craig Kieswetter (22) and Joe Burns (0) in the final over of the powerplay, with Kieswetter caught behind by Paine keeping up to the stumps and Burns undone by an in-swinger which crashed into his stumps. Leg-spinner Cameron Boyce (3-21) then had Chris Lynn caught at cover in the next over as Brisbane slumped to 3-53 with the asking rate climbing above 12 runs an over. It could have been even better in Mascarenhas' final over, where Luke Pomersbach clubbed a ball to deep mid-wicket only for Malik to misjudge the chance, spill it and watch it go for four. Pomersbach rubbed salt into the wound by sending a delivery deep into the construction site two balls later, and reached a brilliant half century from 25 balls. But with the required rate climbing and wickets falling around him, the left-hander perished trying to keep his side in touch, dragging Ben Laughlin onto his stumps for an enterprising 32-ball 60. Big hitting Ben Cutting and James Hopes combined to add 52 for the sixth wicket but any hope the visitors had of equalling the highest ever BBL total and replicating Hobart's run chase in round one at the Gabba disappeared thanks to some brilliant Paine glovework and brave captaincy. Hopes charged Malik in the 16th over, with an off-break sneaking between bat and pad and an unsighted Paine snaffling the stumping opportunity. Next over the skipper brought Boyce back into the attack from the Church St end - despite leaving Cutting hitting to a short leg side boundary - and the tweaker repaid the faith by sneaking a leg-break through Cutting, who missed a big swipe over mid-wicket.