Strikers make Short work of Thunder again
Propelled by another Matt Short masterclass, the rampant Adelaide Strikers have maintained their perfect start to the BBL season with a six-wicket win over Sydney Thunder at Adelaide Oval.
Matt Short scored 65 from 44 balls. Photo: AAP/Matt Turner
Short (65) was circumspect early on Tuesday night before exploding after the powerplay to pilot the ladder-leading Strikers past the Thunder’s 5-150 with eight deliveries to spare, and to a 3-0 record.
After the early departure of Jake Weatherald (seven), Short, this season’s leading runscorer, opened his shoulders and bludgeoned five sixes in his scintillating 44-ball knock.
He was also miserly with the ball (0-13 off three overs), took a liking to Daniel Sams’ offerings and dominated an 83-run, second-wicket union with Chris Lynn (28), who was cast in the unlikely role of second fiddle.
Both men fell to superb yorkers from left-arm pacer Nathan McAndrew (2-25), Lynn’s castle disturbed and Short trapped in front, before English import Adam Hose (28no) came in to apply the finishing touches.
“My job at the top of the order is to make runs and I feel like I’m doing that reasonably consistently now,” Short said.
“It (result) shows we can win games if we bat first or second.
“(The team had) a big emphasis on starting well and getting early wins to set us up and we’ve definitely done that.”
Earlier, the Strikers bowlers put their team in a strong position after recovering from an early Alex Hales onslaught.
The English masterblaster top-scored with 68 but was kept in relative check after crunching 36 of the Thunder’s 39 powerplay runs.
The Adelaide crowd broke into a round of applause in the third over when the Thunder’s score went past the T20 world record low 15 that they embarrassingly posted against the Strikers on Friday night.
Hales put on 63 for the third wicket with young Ollie Davies (42) before both succumbed to Colin de Grandhomme (2-25).
The Thunder, whose win-loss record fell to 1-3, were eyeing 180-plus after reaching 2-79 at the halfway stage before being restricted to 3-71, including just three boundaries, in the last 10 overs.
“We were maybe 15-20 (runs) short with the bat … but I would have still backed us to win that game if we’d bowled to our best ability,” Thunder seamer Gurinder Sandhu said.
“We could have bowled better, we could have batted better and we could have had more energy in the field.
“We haven’t done all those things well in one game.
Friday’s destroyer Henry Thornton captured 2-19 to take his season tally to 11 wickets at a phenomenal 3.82 average.
-AAP
