Riding on Alex Hales and Ollie Davies stunning knocks, Sydney Thunder earned an emphatic 62-run victory against Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League (BBL) match at the Lavington Oval in Albury on Saturday (December 31).
Batting first, riding on Hales' brilliant 77 off 45 and Davies' cracking 65 off 32 to post a colossal total of 228/6 in their stipulated 20 overs. In reply, Hurricanes ran out of steam and were bundled out for mere 166 in 17 overs. Matthew Wade tried to put on some fight but his quickfire 67 off 30 couldn't save Hurricanes from going down to Thunder. Brendan Doggett did the star work with the ball for Thunders as he snared 4/35 to rip through the Hurricanes' batting line-up. But more than Doggett bowling, what hogged the limelight was his near-impossible catch off his own delivery to send Nathan Ellis packing. On the third ball of the 16th over, Ellis belted the ball straight at Doggett, who reacted quickly and executed the stunning catch which left everyone awestruck.
BBL shared the video on their office Twitter handle and captioned it, "How's the reflexes on Brendan Doggett?! #BBL12".
Here's the video…
Doggett also took the wickets of D'Arcy Short, James Neesham and Joel Paris. With the win, Sydney Thunder moved to the second spot in the BBL table with eight points. Perth Scorchers are ahead of the Thunder in the points table, courtesy of a better net run-rate.
On an extremely batter-friendly wicket at Albury's Lavington Sports Ground, Davies fired away to the first half-century of his young BBL career, while English opener Hales was the steady hand after the Thunder were sent in.
Only Nathan Ellis was able to consistently trouble the batting order as Davies proved especially keen to exploit the short boundaries down the ground.
Six of his ten boundaries went over either long-on or long-off before he was caught by Paddy Dooley at backward point from Ellis' bowling.
Hales became the first man to surpass 200 runs for the tournament and appeared set to finish the innings unbeaten until he was caught on the boundary rope by Tim David on the first ball of the final over.
Earlier this month, Sydney Thunder entered the cricket record books in the most unwanted fashion on Friday after being bowled out for just 15 in their BBL game against Adelaide Strikers, the lowest T20 score in history.
Chasing a gettable 140, Thunder's innings lasted just one ball shy of six overs, with five of their players failing to trouble the scorer.
