Moises mulls changes to rain rules after derby damp squib

Rival Sydney KFC BBL captains Moises Henriques and Callum Ferguson have called for cricket's wet weather rules to be revisited after the Thunder's rain-affected win over the Sixers on Saturday night.

Having bowled out the Sixers for 76 after winning the bat flip and electing to bowl, the Thunder reached 2-28 after 5.3 overs to be ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern target when play was finally called off at 10:15pm local time due to rain.

The Sixers, who were 6-25 at one stage, batted 15.5 of their 16 overs on a wicket that had only moments before the toss been uncovered due to the persistent rain in Sydney this week, and had to restart their innings twice after light showers interrupted play.

It meant the Sixers had the worst of the batting conditions, forced to bat on a wicket that was soft and provided prodigious seam movement, although the visitors did themselves no favours with three run outs.

Henriques was particularly upset with his dismissal, caught at slip off a rearing Chris Morris delivery in the seven balls between the two rain breaks only six minutes apart.

Henriques suggested after play delaying the start of the match to allow both teams a chance to bat in similar conditions at the cost of playing time could be a solution to provide an even contest.

But he pointed out the unpredictability of bad weather would make reducing a match a difficult task.

"Rather than trying to get the maximum amount of overs played in a game … a more even contest is trying to get both teams batting in the same conditions rather than we go out to bat straight after the covers have been sitting on the wicket for four hours," Henriques told reporters after play.

"I'm not even sure if they rolled the wicket before we batted on it. Then it's aired for an hour-and-a-half plus the 20 minutes in the changeover and they (the Thunder) get to bat on a rolled wicket.

"Maybe just delaying the start so at least the wicket gets a bit of air. If we both have to bat for 17/18 overs right from the get go, or even less if it's 13 or 14 (overs), at least you're closer to have an even contest.

"But with nights like this you can't predict when the rain comes as well, so that's going to make it difficult one, because at the same time they are trying to get as much cricket in for the fans and people watching.

"Considering how much rain we've had in Sydney, and much-needed rain to be fair – there's much bigger things to worry about than cricket – but the fact they (the goundstaff) even got it close to being ready to play on, they've done pretty well."

While the Sixers were stung with the worst of the conditions, they almost pulled off an unlikely win by taking early wickets as rain threatened to cut short the match.

For a BBL fixture to count as a match, five overs must bowled in each innings.

The Thunder did enough to get over the line on Saturday night but missed out by only four balls when their match against the Adelaide Strikers in Canberra was called off after 4.2 overs in the second innings due to heavy smoke with the hosts well ahead of the DLS target.

That result left Thunder skipper Ferguson frustrated, and while he was understandably more pleased last night given the result went his side's way, he remains uncertain whether five overs is enough cricket to determine a winner.

"You'd love to be able to stretch the game out longer wouldn't you, and not have to worry about cut-off times and whatnot," Ferguson said.

"But there's got to be an end at some point, doesn't there. It's like Test cricket, the never-ending Tests aren't around anymore either.

"It's frustrating. I'm not sure exactly what the answer is. You've just got to make sure that Duckworth-Lewis is as fair as possible and from there at least we got a result.

"But again, I just wonder whether five overs is enough time to really give you a genuine result.

"Maybe that's something we could look at, whether it needs to be 10 (overs). I don't know the answer."