Winning the toss and sending Melbourne Stars to bat first, Thunder made no bad choice. Melbourne Stars were nere in their momentum and kept losing their wickets at regular intervals. After first 5 overs, they couldn’t even touch the over 7 runs per over mark. After being earlier hit by unfortunate absence of Glenn Maxwell, they also had to lose Joe Burns who suffered with hamstring while taking in single in the mid overs.
Their foreign recruitment Joe Clarke couldn’t provide the start the needed and their highest run scorer was Nick Larkin who scored 25 off 26 balls. Most reliant international star Marcus Stoinis got a duck on the first ball and Stars never seemed to recover from their misery.
Down the order, Coulter Nile gave them some hope but the team could only reach 122 after given 20 overs. The pitch was on the slower side and Thunder captain Jason Sangha did no mistake in giving his bowlers the right way to go.
The debutant Fazalhaq Farooqi was superb, bagging two wickets and conceding only 20 runs. Gurinder Sandhu and Daniel Sams, both shared 2 wickets each under the economy of 6. The key all rounder Chris Green who joined Thunder this year was brilliant with ball, going under the economy of 5 in a T20 game.
The chase looked like fine ride but as soon as second innings started and Trent Boult showed his skill set, Sydney Thunder were taken aback. Boult dismissed two of three top order batsmen for a duck in the first over. Rilee Rossouw who debuted for Sydney Thunder was dismissed for another duck.
Alex Hales out up some striking but gave his wicket to Nathan Coulter Nile after brief fireworks. Jason Sangha and Alex Ross did amazing job in the middle overs but none of them could go for a big score. Both were bowled by Adam Zampa who bagged his 100th BBL wicket by dismissing Alex Ross on 28.
Four byes to win and the @ThunderBBL dugout couldn't believe their luck! #BBL12 pic.twitter.com/al0NwC5hOr
— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) December 13, 2022
From there on the job was getting tougher for the Thunders. Next to bat, Daniel Sams couldn’t resist his temptation to hit beyond the boundary and was caught by Tom Rogers leaving Sydney Thunder for 57 for 5.
With admission of Gurinder Sandhu and Chris Green, Sydney Thunder recovered from an unwanted position where they ended with needing 8 runs from the last over. Out of nowhere, Thunder lost two wickets in the last over and it seemed all over for them but Sandhu smacked a long hit over mid wicket to bring back the lost soul to the team. They won the match on the last ball after having some scares throughout the innings.
Next today, Sydney Sixers will come against Adelaide Strikers. The match starts at 1:45 IST.