.jpeg?im=Resize,height=373 "BBL Eliminator, Thunder vs Heat: Preview, Prediction and Fantasy Tips")
BBL Eliminator, Thunder vs Heat: Preview, Prediction and Fantasy Tips
BBL Match 50 | Sixers vs Thunder: Preview, Prediction and Fantasy Tips
SIX vs THU Fantasy Prediction: BBL 12, Match 50
BBL 12: Nathan Ellis, Tim David star in massive win for Hurricanes against Thunder
David, in particular looked in great nick and showed why he is one of the best finishers going around at the moment
Tye, Bancroft ease things at Showground vs Thunder
Chasing 112 runs in a T20 game is never a hard job, and it becomes easier when Perth Scorchers are in the commanding seat.
BBL 10 | Thunder vs Renegades: Sydney's power-packed performances blow off Melbourne
The Sydney Thunder made light work of the batting lineup of the Melbourne Renegades and handed a massive defeat by 129 runs in the 14th match of the Big Bash League. The Thunders were in supreme form in Canberra and put out complete team performances in all the departments of the game, and left the Renegades toothless in chase of a big score. For the Thunder, the stars of the show were leg spinner Tanveer Sangha, who took four wickets for only 14 runs in his 3.2 over bowling efforts and Oliver Davies who blasted 48 runs off 23 balls to keep the momentum going for the Thunder. The Renegades were given a steep target of 209 runs to chase, and the experienced opener Shaun Marsh and Aaron Finch could not get going against the opening bowling pair of Adam Milne and Daniel Sams. But, the opening big wicket of Shaun Warsh was scalped by Nathan McAndrew, who is keeping his stocks shining with every game. The next man in, Sam Harper started to get the Renegades back into the game as the duo took 13 runs off Adam Milne in the first five balls of Milne, but the Kiwi got the better of Harper on the last ball to clog back the momentum. After the end of the powerplay, Callum Fergusson introduced Tanveer Sangha and he was at the short cover to catch one of the best batsmen in the Renegades batting line up—Aaron Finch when he tried to power one shortish delivery of Sangha through the off side. Next set of batsmen Beau Webster and Rilee Rossouw tried to take the game into the Thunder camp, but it wasn’t the Renegades' night at the Manuka Oval as Sangha accounted for Webster in his next over. The problem got deeper when Chris Green got Rossouw caught slog sweeping in pursuit of a higher required run rate. The jolts were too much to handle for the Renegades and when Sangha came back to dismiss Mohammad Nabi and Green accounted for Imad Wasim, the night was set to be longer for the Renegades, who now have lost three of their four matches in the campaign this year. The men in red and black could sustain only 12.2 overs while the Thunder plundered 209 runs and it emphasized the kind of routing the team suffered in both the departments and it might have left Renegades skipper Aaron Finch booking back on his decision to field first. The Thunder were off to a splendid start as the opening pair of Alex Hales and Usman Khwaja took full toll of the listless bowling from the new ball bowlers of the Renegades. Khwaja was particularly severe on Peter Hatzoglou and took him for 6 runs to provide a rollick platform for the Thunder. Finch tried to slow down the pace of the game by introducing Imad Wasim but Hales was up to the task and sent the left-arm spinner for long journeys over the fence. By the end of the powerplay, the Thunder were already at 50/0 and both Hales and Khwaja were looking in devastating form. By the time Khwaja was sent back to the pavilion courtesy a screamer by Zak Evans at the end of the sixth over, the Thunder were already at a dictating position of 71/1. Hales quickly followed Khwaja to the dugout but the next man in, Oliver Davies was looking in menacing form and treated all Renegades bowlers with disdain. He smashed four sixes off Mohammad Nabi and when Finch brought Will Sutherland to check his hitting, he too was greeted with a big hit over the midwicket fence. However, the right armer got the better of Davies on the third ball of his third over with a searing yorker. On the other end, Callum Ferguson struggled to get going and could only score at a strike rate of 100 runs per balls, but Daile Sams and Nathan McAndrew made sure that the Thunder finished strongly with the bat. Kane Richardson tried to bring momentum in Renegades' favour as three wickets fell in the 19th over, but McAndrew came hard at Zak Evans to slog him for three sixes to lead the Thunder past 200-mark which ultimately proved too steep for the Renegades to reach. On the back of this one-sided win, the Thunder has surged to the top of the points table with three wins out of four games while the Renegades have been relegated to the bottom half of the points table.
BBL 10: Debutant Davies shines in Thunder's mauling of Scorchers
The Sydney Thunder continued their winning momentum by defeating Perth Scorchers by a big margin of 7 wickets at the Manuka Oval on Tuesday 22 December. After a comprehensive bowling performance in the first innings, Thunder followed it up by a gritty batting performance to chase down 153 runs despite being under the cosh by the Scorchers bowlers. They completed the chase three balls and seven wickets to spare, with captain Callum Ferguson top-scoring with his knock of 61 runs in 53 balls. A complete bowling performance from Thunder Debuting for the Thunder, Adam Milne put in a performance to remember bowling great lengths at quick pace. His yorkers and surprise short deliveries put batsmen in trouble and his strict lines kept the batsmen in check. This meant that Scorchers were able to put away just 9 boundaries and 4 sixes in the entire innings and that turned out to be one of the major contributing factors in their loss. Milne was ably assisted by the likes of Nathan McAndrew, Daniel Sams, Ben Cutting and Tanveer Sangha who picked one wicket each. Barring the discipline, Milne entertained the crowd with a James Anderson-esque action. In the wrong side of Lady Luck Perth Scorchers came into defend with at least 15-20 runs short of the par score. Apart from the odd climbing up sharply, the deck looked pretty good to bat on. Scorchers’ needed quick wickets if they wanted to get any grip on the match, and they picked up their the most pleasing of manners. Coming from over the wicket, a left handed Jason Behrendorff went through Alex Hales’ gates and uprooted the stumps in the final ball of the first over. But since that wicket, nothing went there way. Dropped chances and a horrible decision by the on-field umpire meant that Scorchers were denied crucial wickets at important stages of the game and once the batsmen dug their feet in, it was just a matter of time before they win it. While dropping catches is a part and parcel of the game, the on-field call truly exemplified what the game was all about. Bowling over the wicket, Andrew Tye’s length ball kissed Usman Khawaja’s bat and went straight to the keeper. The edge was heard clear over the Television, but the umpire for some very odd reason, decided to reject the appeal. Once the decision was made and Tye went back to his bowling marker he asked the umpire for a rationale, to which the umpire shockingly replied that the bat had touched the ground. An agitated Tye looked at him in bewilderment and his bafflement was confirmed by the replays that reaffirmed that the bat was miles above the ground. This of course sparks the debate if the Decision Review System should be accepted by big tournaments as a standard measure because the whole idea of the review system is to eliminate errors that end up costing teams in crucial encounters. What a debut for young Oliver Davies A catch in the outfield and a blistering innings of 36 off 22 balls on a day where batsmen with international pedigree struggled to hit the balls, 20-year-old Oliver Davies had a debut to remember. Davies took on all Scorchers’ bowlers and dispatched them all over the park. He barely looked uncomfortable and at the fag end of his stay he toyed with the likes of T20 specialist Fawad Ahmed, reading and hitting them at will. He came into the crease at 34-2 with both openers back into the dugout and captain Callum Ferguson finding it hard to get bat on ball. His single handed hook against Behrendorff in the 11th over was the shot of the day that changed the entire momentum of the game and put Thunder in great position. At the end, he got out trying to step down against Fawad Ahmed and completely missing the flight of the ball, but there would not be many regrets considering he had done his job by then. In conclusion, Thunder would once again be happy with their performance and the fact that they once again did not falter despite losing early wickets. In the last game man of the match, Daniel Sams had said that Thunder as a unit pride themselves for not getting nervous and a great innings by their debutant only restores that faith. With games coming thick and fast, Thunder will go up against the Melbourne Renegades in a Boxing Day encounter, and Perth will look to manage their batting frailties as best as they can in their next game against Adelaide Strikers on 28 December.