Sams relishing unexpected opportunity in BBL|11

Daniel Sams says he's relishing his new role higher up the batting order as the versatile Sydney Thunder search for their sixth straight win in KFC BBL|11.

The power-hitting allrounder smashed his career-best score on Saturday night with a brutal 98 not out off 44 balls that helped hand a dismal Melbourne Renegades the equal-third largest loss in Big Bash history.

Sams was promoted to No.4 after England wicketkeeper-batter Sam Billings was called up to the Test squad and looked right at home when he crunched his second ball into the second tier at Marvel Stadium.

"I'm just happy to be able to take the opportunity to bat four," he said after the 129-run win.

"(To) be able to get out there a bit earlier and give myself a chance and not necessarily have to go out straightaway and smack it … was lots of fun."

The 29-year-old said it was easily the best knock of his BBL career.

"That's the best one, it's probably the most balls I think I've faced in BBL as well so that's definitely the best T20 innings I've played," he said.

"It is what it is (not reaching his century), I just didn't quite get the timing of it on that last one, but the main thing is I was able to do a job for the guys and we got the win – that's five in a row so it's awesome."

Sams previous top score in the BBL was 65 not out, which came off just 25 balls against the Brisbane Heat in December 2020.

It was also the highest score of his professional career, topping his knock of 88 (74 balls) for Canterbury in New Zealand's first-class competition, the Plunket Shield, in 2017.

With Billings set to miss the remainder of the tournament and Alex Ross yet to return from COVID isolation, Sams could stay at No. 4 for the Thunder's next few games.

Despite having a number of positive COVID cases themselves – with Alex Hales, Ross, Sam Whiteman and Tanveer Sangha all missing games – the Thunder haven't missed a beat in their past five games as they climbed to second spot on the table behind the Perth Scorchers.

They will be looking to make it six in a row this afternoon against the Hobart Hurricanes at the MCG.

"We're in a great position, we're playing some seriously good cricket," Sams said.

"We've got individual performances happening, but the big thing is we're playing as a team.

"We've had a really good roster for the last few years, we just haven't necessarily been able to gel as a unit for the whole entire tournament previously.

"I think we're really dangerous in this tournament so we just need to keep the momentum going and hopefully we can get six (wins in a row).

"We've seen (Matt) Gilkes, (Jason) Sangha come in this year and smack them and do really well, we've got G (Gurinder Sandhu) coming back in this year bowling really well – anyone can come in and play at any time."