Henry Thornton records the best figures by Australian in Big Bash League history

Henry Thornton (Source: Twitter)

Adelaide Strikers pacer Henry Thornton on Friday wreaked havoc with his belligerent spell against Sydney Thunder. In this pursuit, he created history by registering the best figures by an Australian player in the Big Bash League history. 

Batting first, the Strikers managed to post a total of 139, with top contributions from Chris Lynn (36) and Colin de Grandhomme (33). Fazalhaq Farooqi was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets for the Thunder. 

In reply, Thunder openers Alex Hales (0) and Matthew Gikes (0) again failed to provide a notable contribution. Their early wickets certainly infused confidence to the Strikers' outfit.

The 26-year-old Thornton was accurate to deliver the balls in areas of uncertainty.  The experienced Thunder batters,  Rilee Rossouw (3) and skipper Jason Sangha (0) were reckless with their shots to get holed out behind the wicket off Thornton. 

Thornton's subsequent wickets were of Alex Ross (1), Oliver Davies (1) and Brendan Doggett (4), as he finished with figures of 5/3. Along with him, Wes Agar took five wickets to run down the Thunder batting line-up and dismiss them for the lowest T20 score of 15. 

Top 5 best bowling figures by an Australian in BBL:

• 5/3 - Henry Thornton, 2022
• 5/14 - Dan Christian, 2017
• 5/16 - Sean Abbott, 2016
• 5/16 - Peter Siddle, 2020
• 5/17 - Adam Zampa, 2021

Thornton made his BBL debut for Sydney Thunder way back in the 2016/17 edition. He then got the chance to play in the tournament for Strikers in 2021. So far, he has scalped 23 wickets in 10 BBL games at an economy of 7.53. 

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