After losing to back to back games, Sydney Sixers bounced back in a similar fashion as they beat cross-town rivals Sydney Thunder in the derby clash at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday, January 15th.
The charge was led by three of the most experienced players in the Sixers unit, skipper Moises Henriques, vice-captain Danie Hughes and spinner Steve O'Keefe as they dismantled the second-placed Thunder and registered a huge win by 60 runs.
The Thunder, which won the toss and decided to field first was set a grand target of 198 to chase by the Sixers. It wasn’t going to be an easy chase but the fact that Thunder kept on losing wickets at the regular intervals made it even tougher. At one point in time, The Thunder were struggling at 80-8 and getting to even a hundred seemed very difficult.
But an out of the blue fifty from Chris Green, where he scored 50 off just 31 balls, hitting four boundaries and a six made it possible for the team to get past the 100 run mark and eventually reach 137-9. An unbeaten 17 off 21 balls by Tanveer Sangha was also important.
For Sixers, O’Keefe was the pick of the bowlers, getting four crucial wickets of Alex Hales, Alex Ross, Daniel Sams and Oliver Davis. Ben Dwarshuis also picked up two wickets.
Earlier in the evening, after being put to bat, Sixers got off to a flyer after the fall of Jack Edwards in the second over. Josh Philippe and Hughes put up 82 runs for the second wicket. Philippe eventually got out for 57. However, Hughes continued and added another 77 with skipper Moises Henriques before getting out on 66 off 48 balls. Henriques did not bother even as wickets fell on the other end and scored an unbeaten 47 off just 27 balls to get his team to 197-5 in their 20 overs.
Post this win, the Sixers overtook the Thunder and have now reached the second position in the BBL 2021-22 Points Table even as both have an equal number of points (31). The Sixers have a game in their hand as compared to Thunder. Perth Scorchers remain at the top of the table.