Thunder Sydney 5 for 167 (Khawaja 49, Ross 44 *, Cut 31 *, Short 3-26) beat Hurricanes Hobart 8 for 128 (Handscomb 30, Green 2-23, McAndrew 2-25, Tanveer 2-29) with 39 runs
Running at the top from Usman Khawaja and at the bottom from Alex Ross and Ben Cutting the Sydney Thunder suddenly provided a defensive defense with their three of Tanveer Sangha, Chris Green and Arjun Nair against Hobart Hurricanes to jump to first place on the Big Bash Table jump in the game at Perth Stadium.
The Hurricanes seemed to get a grip on the competition when Khawaja’s free scoring against the new ball dropped a beautiful left-handed spell from D’Arcy Short, but Ross and Cutting the way to a crucial place worth 57 from the last 31 balls of the innings to give Thunder something.
Hobart’s chase seemed to be on course and he was good enough to secure a Bash Boost point for a build ahead of the Thunder at the 10-over mark. But wiles Tanveer, who brought him to the top of the BBL wicket-takers list, was too much for Peter Handscomb and Colin Ingram, before the Hurricanes innings came out when 6 wickets fell for 26.
Khawaja is on top of the textures
It could be said that there was a neutral afternoon match in Perth on the other side of the country to where Khawaja could be, as the SCG Test was still going on at the time he walked out to bat with Alex Hales. But a brilliantly clear day and a friendly pitch for batting gave Khawaja plenty of reason to start fluently against the Hurricanes, with a series of boundaries that were as attractive as they were effective.
The Thunder also got support, with Riley Meredith being taken out of Hobart XI late due to a rib complaint, going against the very loss of Daniel Sams. Khawaja started with a nifty cut and sweep by Johan Botha, before climbing into Scott Boland with three fouls in five balls: a paddle around the corner and then two careless cover drivers. Sydney were up to 65, with Khawaja having scored 42 of those from just 23 balls, after seven goals. But Khawaja could only score seven more runs from his last 10 balls and fell lbw to Short: the Thunder’s early ashes had slowed heavily.
Ross, Cutting stinging tail
After seeing the ball fly to all parts early, it was clear that the Hurricanes saw the Thunder then decline to 5 for 110 with 31 balls of the innards remaining. That scoreline, however, led Cut to center to join Alex Ross, one of the most dangerous midfielders of a pair of orders that could put a bowling attack on him at the back end of BBL’s texture. Ross had made a strong start when Arjun Nair was run out, and he and Cutting took a couple of turns to gather themselves before starting for Boland in the early 18th over.
After Boland opted to deliver from around the wicket, Ross found himself with enough room to drive powerfully beyond six for six before then going fertile behind a square foot. Ross was going to continue with one of the top six of the tournament so far, again over time as Boland moved into his beating range in the final. A cut, meanwhile, had moved the first lucky end before it came much closer to the flesh of the bat with a brace of boundaries off Boland in the 18th over. The fence cut off Nathan Ellis loosened in the 19th before exploding two from the last ball of the innings, until the sixth wicket stood at 57.
Handscomb, founded by Malan
Hobart did a pretty good job early in the pursuit, not finding the border often enough to get a result out of the question. Short and Ben McDermott both took control of their lead at their opening center, but both were sacked by Nathan McAndrew as he continued to consistently harvest wickets for Callum Ferguson. The Hurricanes Handscomb captain struggled with the targeted appearance of a leader who was conscious of taking his team home, and for 48 runs in 40 balls he and Dawid Malan looked capable of doing just that.
Handscomb and Malan let almost enough five-pets pass without finding the rope, but they seemed to have accelerated at just the right time when a pair of boundaries off Tanveer’s bowling took them to the Boost spot at the 10-over signal. As the score climbed to 91, with 75 missing from 51 balls, the eight wikis in their hands seemed to be the main differences with the Thunder’s decline in their middle stages. .
Tanveer shuts it down
Ferguson, however, had left plenty of spinning over his back, and after Green fired a full delivery under Malan ‘s bat, Tanveer returned to spin his beautiful footing past Handscomb groping. Tim David was even more charitable, taking a short ball from Nair to Ferguson delighted in midwicket, leaving the competition more or less in the hands of Colin Ingram, who had moved his way high for something similar to what Cutting and Ross had achieved.
Tanveer had one more left, and finished off another incredibly mature performance by surrendering four singles before following a dot ball to Ingram with googly tempting wide of the stump off and a thin edge through to Sam Billings to end the contest. very much towards the Thunder. When X-Factor substitute Mac Wright was hit for distance by Adam Milne five balls later, the game was effectively up.
Daniel Brettig is assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @danbrettig