Sydney Thunder consolidated their position at the top of teh Big Bash League 2020 points table after they beat Hobart Hurricanes by a handsome margin of 39 runs at the Perth Stadium. With this win, the Thunder bounced back to winning ways, having been beaten by the Heat comprehensively in their last game. On the other hand, Hurricanes tasted their second defeat in a row, this one a bit sour than a fighting loss against the Stars at home.
Callum Ferguson led side is now at the top of the table with six wins in eight games and 22 points in their kitty, one more than crosstown neighbors Sixers, who are at 21 points, having been romped by Scorchers in their last game. Hurricanes though got a boost point and pushed the tally of their points to 19 in nine games with five wins and four losses.
Hurricanes were going nicely after the dismissals of the openers D’Arcy Short and Ben McDermott as Dawid Malan and skipper Handscomb threaded a 40 ball 48 runs partnership. However, just as they were looking to accelerate, Chris Green yorker got the better of Malan. The score was 91 and the Hurricanes’ downfall began from thereon. After the fall of that wicket, within a span of 25 runs, the Hobart side lost five crucial wickets and could never recover back to challenge the Thunder.
Though it all started with the Malan wicket, even before he lost his wicket, Malan wasn’t looking like himself in the middle as he had struggled to 20 from 23 balls. This was because of the fact that he was not able to read either Green or Sangha. Soon after Malan’s dismissal, Sangha flighted Handscomb, the Hurricanes’ skipper back to the pavilion as he was stumped by Sam Billings after coming out of the crease on the first delivery of a fresh spell from the 19-year-old.
Just a while afterward, a soft dismissal on a wayward delivery from Arjun Nair got out dangerman Tim David and the bandwagon followed as one after the other Colin Ingram, Macalister Wright, and Nick Winter were dismissed. Ingram, became Snagha’s 15th BBL 10 scalp taking him to the top of the 'most wickets' tally for this season. He got past Strikers’ main paceman Wes Agar, who has 14 scalps.
Into the chase, the Hurricanes had got off to a solid start by their openers McDermott and Short. They had added 36 for the first wicket in just four overs and were looking to loosen up. It was at that time that Nathan McAndrew threw in a short ball that hurried on to Short, getting him caught at short midwicket. Soon after, McAndrew also got McDermott out and hindered the flow of runs of the Hurricanes, resulting in building pressure over the new batters like Malan and Handscomb.
It was these two wickets by McAndrew at the right moment which got him the Man of the Match Award. He finished with figures of 2/25 from his four overs.
Earlier in the day, Hurricanes after winning the toss, put Thunder to bat first and did well to get wickets at quick intervals, especially after a brisk start by Hales and Khawaja. From 59 for none to 110/5, the Hurricanes brought themselves back into the game courtesy of their spinners Sandeep Lammichhane and Short, who in the period of 7-15 overs went for just 49 runs and got four wickets.
But after their spell was done, comeback man Alex Ross along with all-rounder and big hitter Ben Cutting got into the act, scoring 56 of the last five overs and taking the score to a competitive 167, which eventually turned out to be a winning score. Ross made 44 off 33 while Cutting smoked 31 off just 14 balls, which included four boundaries and a six.
In the next game at Perth itself, the Thunder would be up against a 'rejuvenated and on a winning trail' Perth Scorchers on Saturday, 09th January. Hurricanes on the other hand have a long four-day rest, which is actually needed after back-to-back losses. They would come back to play Scorchers at the Docklands in Melbourne on the 12th of January.
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