Adelaide Strikers have become the first Big Bash team to successfully defend a total, beating the Sydney Thunder by 51 runs at the Olympic stadium.
The Thunder needed nearly nine an over after the Strikers scored 6 for 177, but they were always struggling after star import Chris Gayle was out for just 8.
Veteran slinger Shaun Tait was the big destroyer, taking the key wickets of Mark Cosgrove (8) and Azhar Mahmood (1) to put added pressure on Gayle.
Chris Rogers tried to keep the score ticking along but when Gayle tried to take a toll on his countryman Kieron Pollard only to hole out to Johan Botha in the deep, the Thunder were 3 for 40 in the eighth over and the game was slipping away.
Cameron Boyce ( 2 for 24) dismissed Sean Abbott (14) and Rogers (23), then Cameron Borgas was run out for 4, leaving the Thunder innings in tatters at 6 for 64.
Scott Coyte (33 off 15) went down fighting, but Kane Richardson (3 for 7) fell just short of a hat-trick after dismissing Coyte and Chris Tremain in successive balls.
Tait finished with 3 for 22. The home side were all out for 126 with eight balls left.
Earlier the Thunder had taken the safe option, winning the toss and putting Adelaide into bat - all 11 previous games in this year's Big Bash had been won by the chasing team.
The Strikers recovered after some stifling early bowling to register 0 for 46 in the six-over powerplay, and went on to be 0 for 75 at half-way.
Adam Zampa broke through in the 12th over, when his leg-break zipped past Tim Ludeman (46 off 39 balls) for a stumping by Carters and Adelaide were 1 for 81.
The key to the innings was the 16th over when Nathan Reardon and opener Michael Klinger launched into Zampa for 23 runs including two fours and two sixes.
The Strikers were then given a life when Reardon was dropped over the boundary for six by Zampa off the first ball of the 17th over, but four balls later the Thunder took one of the catches of the competition.
Reardon (42 off 20) went long and straight against the breeze - the ball looked like a six, but Cameron Borgas at long-on got both hands to it in mid-air and palmed it back over the line for Coyte to take the catch.
Twenty20 specialist paceman Dirk Nannes (4 for 17) then took over with a wicked spell, dismissing Klinger (60 off 46), Theo Doropoulos (0), Pollard (16 off 7 balls) and Callum Ferguson (0).
The result means the Thunder are winless from three games, while the Strikers have won two out of their three games.
Tags: sport, cricket, twenty20, sydney-2000, nsw, adelaide-5000, sa, australia First posted December 20, 2012 22:42:02
No comments:
Post a Comment