The Sydney Thunder have sputtered their way to the lowest total in the history of men’s professional T20 cricket – bowled out for just 15 runs – to hand the Adelaide Strikers the easiest of BBL wins at Showground Stadium.
The Thunder restricted the Strikers to 9-139 and looked in control after losing the toss and being asked to field on Friday night, but they were bowled out in just 35 balls to come up well short of the BBL’s previous record for low score (57).
“I don’t have much to say about that, to be honest,” Thunder captain Jason Sangha said, after their 124-run defeat.
“I could sit here and I could dive into what went wrong and what we could have done better.
“But at the end of the day, it’s just not good enough for a professional team to get bowled out for that little.”
Henry Thornton (5-3) and Wes Agar (4-6) ran riot as the Thunder limped to 6-9 in the power play.
Thornton, the 26-year-old paceman who had played only eight BBL matches before this summer, finished the night with statistically the most efficient spell in BBL history. His economy was 1.06 from just under three overs.
“I’m still in shock,” Thornton said at stumps.
“We just couldn’t believe what was happening.”
Adelaide’s two marquee bowlers Peter Siddle and Rashid Khan did not even need to bowl.
Specialist quick Brendan Doggett top-scored for the Thunder with only four runs, scored from the sole boundary of an innings that lasted less than 40 minutes.
The Strikers once again had success by starting their innings with spinner Matt Short, who dispatched Matthew Gilkes with a length ball that the opener hit to point.
It was Gilkes’ second duck from as many innings this tournament but the Strikers were only getting started.
Short took an early contender for catch of the tournament by jumping in the slips for a one-handed grab to dismiss Rilee Rossouw, whose three runs made him the highest scorer of the out-and-out batters.
Thornton had Sangha only two balls later as the second of five ducks. Other than Gilkes and Sangha, T20I superstar Alex Hales, Chris Green and Gurinder Sandhu all went without scoring.
The Thunder lost eight of their 10 wickets caught behind to capitulate in less than six overs but Sangha said he had no concerns about his side’s ability to shrug the defeat off.
“It’s pretty easy to move on,” he said.
“I know from the outside it looks like we should be having long meetings and talking about how we can change our technique and all this other stuff but at the end of the day, it’s one bad game.
“You’ve got to understand that things aren’t always going to go your way as a batter.
“On another day, Rossouw’s shot goes a centimetre over Short’s hand for four and maybe we don’t have this conversation and we end up on the winning side.
“You bin this game, you move on. We have another opportunity on Sunday against the Renegades. You’ve just got to keep trusting what went well. We’re a good enough team.”
Earlier, Chris Lynn and Colin de Grandhomme forged a 66-run partnership for the only real highlight of the Strikers’ modest 9-139.
But the Thunder’s effort made the Strikers look like world beaters and they now move to 2-0.
