With nine runs taken from four balls, Chris Morris Matt Kelly started up tall and handsome for giant six. He followed with a 4 over the cover to ensure victory. Morris had only 45 runs in his nine innings this season but delivered the racket when it mattered.
To hunt with a relatively small sum, thunder opener Alex Hales took on himself the platform for victory and a place in the BBL | 09 final round.
His killing spree began in the second round when he defeated former South African speedster and Scorchers debutant Morne Morkel for two fours and flew six behind the deep backward square.
With the required run-rate under control, Hales kicked off the scoreboard with partner Usman Khawaja and put the bad balls away. The right-hander switched from 40 to 46 with a giant six-man off-Perth captain Mitch Marsh who landed in the top row at Sydney Showground Stadium.
He met the 47-member Leggie Fawad Ahmed, and although they had big problems when the equation took 12 runs for the final, his departure was too late for the visitors.
Hales has been in a purple spot since New Year’s and has scored 55, 31, 0, 85, 63 and 47 points in his last six innings today.
BOOM!
— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 26, 2020
Game on the line, Jhye Richardson would be right up there as who you’d want with ball in hand #BBL09 pic.twitter.com/f0pZP2yEGj
A heavy downpour delayed the game for an hour with the Scorchers to 4-99 out of 15 overs. The delay ended the Scorchers’ innings and let the Thunder 12 Overs 96 chase to win.
Cameron Bancroft started on a slow deck at 2:47 a.m. on the eighth, and opener Liam Livingstone tried to find the rope.
But with the remaining overs drying up and the impending wet weather, Bancroft grew up and hit pacemaker Gurinder Sandhu for a long pause before hitting leg spinner Jonathan Cook for two fours.
The rain stopped his attack on 35 of 25 balls and denied the chance of reaching a third half-century for the season.
Alex Hales giving Morne Morkel a less-than-friendly welcome to the Big Bash! #BBL09 pic.twitter.com/0MhWhhJQxk
— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 26, 2020
With the wick from Ashton Turner, a hard-hitting mid-level racket, Daniel Sams set a new record for most wickets in a single BBL season.
Sam ‘s 25th scalp broke the previous record of 24, that of Melbourne Renegade’ s fast Kane Richardson in BBL | 08 was set up. He ends the regular season with 25 gates at 14.8 and a best of 4-34 against the hurricanes.
