BBL 2020-21, Sydney Thunder V Brisbane Heat: Who won today's Big Bash League match?
Sydney Thunder and Brisbane Heat didn't have the best start to their BBL 2020-21 campaign as both lost their opening encounter. The two teams clashed with each other at the Manuka Oval in Canberra.
In a thrilling encounter, the Sydney Thunder emerged victorious by 4 wickets. Daniel Sams' heroics at the end sealed the win for the Thunder who are now among the points in BBL 2020-21.
Lynn and Wildermuth power Brisbane to 178/6
The Heat won the BBL bat flip and elected to bat. Max Bryant and Sam Heazlett gave them a good start as they raced to 37 in 3.1 overs. When Heazlett departed for a quickfire 20, captain Lynn walked in at number 3.
The former KKR batsman took time to get going but soon found his groove. After ten overs, the Heat scored 79-2. Lynn cut loose when he took the power surge in the 11th over. Brisbane Heat scored 27 runs in those two overs, and the innings gained momentum.
It was Jack Wildermuth, though, who accelerated the scoring in the end. He pummeled four sixes in his innings of 11 balls and scored 31 runs before Sams dismissed him.
For the Thunder, leg spinner Tanveer Sangha was their most economical bowler as he conceded just 27 runs in 4 overs. However, he failed to pick up a wicket.
BBL 2020-21: How the Sydney Thunder's innings fared
Needing nine an over, the Thunder got off to a horrible start as Alex Hales was cleaned up by Jack Wildermuth in the first over. Wildermuth continued to breathe fire as he dismissed Thunder's captain Callum Ferguson for a duck, and accounted for Usman Khwaja wicket as he bowled his full quota of 4 overs in one go.
After six overs, the Sydney-based outfit managed 45 runs for the loss of 3 wickets.
Alex Ross and Ben Holt tried to rescue the ship in the middle overs. However, Holt was undone by Mujeeb Ur Rahman on the score of 23. After 11 overs, the Thunder were at 82-5 and a victory looked improbable. But Ben Cutting (29 of 23) and Daniel Sams (65 of 25) took the game away from the Heat in the business end of the innings.
Click here to see who has taken the most wickets in BBL this season.
The Thunder needed 50 in the last five overs and they reached that mark thanks to Sams. Mark Steketee provided an essential breakthrough by picking the wicket of Ben Cutting in the 18th over. But that was only a consolation as Sams smashed four sixes off Ben Laughlin's 19th over and took his team home with seven balls to spare to give his side the first win of the new BBL 2020-21 season.