With the Thunder bowlers struggling to grip the wet ball, the Sixers continued to accelerate towards the end of the innings, with Christian leading the charge. He hit 17 runs from Mahmood’s final over before blasting Nathan McAndrew for 21 in the final over, taking advantage of several full tosses and a free hit to propel the Sixers to 4-168 off their 16 overs.
“We really struggled to find momentum for a lot of that [innings] with the rain and all, so the way [Daniel] Hughesy and Dan [Christian] played gave us a lot of momentum,” James Vince said.
Alex Hales of the Thunder walks off.Credit:Getty
The Thunder struggled early as they chased 173, losing Matthew Gilkes to an athletic catch from Edwards in the first over. Alex Hales and Jason Sangha took the attack to the Sixers bowlers, with Hales hitting Sean Abbott for consecutive sixes before Abbott fought back to remove Hales off the next ball.
Sangha and Alex Ross combined for a 34-run partnership to keep the Thunder in the hunt. But as the run-rate continued to climb, Sangha’s luck ran out as he fell for 47 leaving the Thunder’s lower order with a mammoth task.
Sams tried to stay with the asking rate, depositing his first two balls into the stands before hitting Abbott back over his head in the power surge. However, Edwards returned to dismiss Sams and effectively seal the win for the Sixers as the Thunder lost 5 wickets off their last 21 balls to fall 30 runs short.
The Thunder travel to Canberra to play the Scorchers on Tuesday while the Sixers return to the SCG to play the Heat on Wednesday.
Sixers sluggers blast their way to Sydney Smash victory over Thunder
Source: Philippines Alive
