Sydney Sixers 191 for 5 (Smith 100, Babar 47, McAndrew 2-34) beat Sydney Thunder 189 for 6 (Warner 110*, Maddinson 26, Curran 3-28) by five wickets
Steven Smith produced a brutal display of batting against Sydney Thunder at the SCG with thrilling 41-ball century to outdo his former Australia team-mate David Warner and lead Sydney Sixers to a stunning run chase which kept alive their hopes of clinching the second spot.Smith and Babar Azam added 141 in 12 overs for the first wicket, although the pair appeared to have a difference of opinion over tactics at the start of the power surge. Smith declined Babar a single because he wanted to face the start of the surge: it proved a good move as Smith took 32 runs off Ryan Hadley, a new record for the most runs in an over in the BBL.
There was a brief wobble as Sixers lost 5 for 28, including Smith, but Lachlan Shaw and Jack Edwards sealed the chase with 16 balls to spare. It meant that a victory over Brisbane Heat at the Gabba on Sunday would see them take second spot and play the Qualifier final. However, a defeat in that game will still see them eliminated and Heat progressing.
Warner had dominated Thunder’s innings with his second century of the season, finishing unbeaten on 110 off 64 balls, but as against Hobart Hurricanes, his hundred came in a losing cause.
David Warner struck his second century of the season•Getty Images
Babar struck the first ball of the chase from four, and scored at a decent clip early on. Smith’s first boundary came when he pulled Wes Agar over square leg for six, before taking Nathan McAndrew’s first three deliveries for 14. McAndrew had been subbed in for Daniel Sams, who was struck on the neck by a bouncer from Sam Curran and suffered delayed concussion symptoms.
The second of two sixes Smith took off McAndrew was a monstrous leg-side blow which struck the roof of the Brewongle Stand; if it hadn’t, it would have gone out of the ground on to Moore Park Road. Smith was batting with the anti-glare strips under his eyes which he had used during the day-night Test against England at the Gabba last month.
An equally brilliant stroke took Smith to a 23-ball fifty when he sliced Agar for a flat six over point. Babar then took consecutive boundaries off Tanveer Sangha, and at the halfway mark, Sixers were 107 without loss.
Then came the moment of drama, or at least disagreement. Babar had played out three dot balls against Chris Green before pushing the last delivery of the 11th over to long-on, but Smith told him not to run, leaving Babar clearly unhappy.
Smith then proceeded to send Hadley’s first three deliveries of the power surge over the ropes – two to the leg side, and one straight down the ground – and then carved a no-ball down to deep third. He was reluctant to come back for a second on the last ball of the over, but eventually did. That left Babar on strike for the start of the next over, and he edged a swipe across the line into his stumps.
Mitchell Starc was back in the BBL after 11 years•Getty Images and Cricket Australia
Earlier in the day, Mitchell Starc’s first over in the BBL for 11 years and 18 days, the longest gap ever between appearances, cost 15 – including an upper-cut six by Warner, who got off to a flyer, and by the end of the powerplay, had 38 off 17 balls out of Thunder’s 49. Starc returned for the sixth over and broke the opening stand when Matthew Gilkes drove to mid-off, where Moises Henriques held a good, low catch.
Warner moved to a 25-ball fifty, as he went back to the top of the run-scoring chart for the season. But it continued to be largely a one-man show. Sam Konstas laboured for 6 off 11 deliveries before getting a top edge which Josh Philippe settled under, with Thunder losing some momentum up to the mid-innings point.
Sam Billings picked out long-off in the 12th over, but two overs later, the power surge was called and the innings changed significantly. The two overs cost 38 runs, with Edwards going for 15 and Sean Abbott being taken for 23, which included two no-balls. Nic Maddinson played his part by taking Edwards for a four and six, before Warner launched into Abbott with a six and three fours.
Starc, who had bowled three overs inside the first ten, showed his class by going for just three runs off his last. In all, his latter three overs cost just 16.
Maddinson was given a life on 13 when Philippe missed a stumping, and his stand with Warner was eventually worth 84 off 47 balls. The final over of the innings was action-packed, consisting of three wickets for Sam Curran, and a four and a six for Sams, either side of being struck a nasty blow by a bouncer which would end his game.
Andrew McGlashan is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo
