Quick turnaround a positive for shellshocked Thunder: Bayliss

Sydney Thunder have a chance to “right the wrong” against Melbourne Renegades on Sunday according to coach Trevor Bayliss, after a humiliating defeat to Adelaide Strikers saw them bowled out for a scarcely believable 15.

The horror Friday night showing, in which Strikers quicks Henry Thornton (5-3) and Wes Agar (4-6) ran riot at Sydney Showground Stadium, saw the Thunder dismissed inside six overs as tailender Brendan Doggett top-scored with just four.

It was the lowest ever total in men's T20 cricket, eclipsing Turkey's 21 against the Czech Republic in 2019.

Skipper Jason Sangha was lost for words in the immediate aftermath, but concluded it was “just not good enough for a professional team to get bowled out for that little”.

Bayliss, a World Cup and Ashes-winning coach with England, said a turnaround of less than 48 hours was a positive for his players.

“Thankfully we have a game on Sunday, so that means our players won’t sit around and think about what happened – they can right the wrong,” he said.

“The Renegades have some good players, and what we’ve seen from the start of this season is each of the eight teams can beat the others.”

While acknowledging that the Strikers “caught spectacularly” in his side’s 35-ball innings, Bayliss was critical of the Thunder’s batting approach.

“The talent is there…we need to put tonight down to ‘one of those things'.

“Adelaide took two very good catches to start with and we looked a bit tentative after that.

“I’m not saying it’s easy, but you’ve got to go out there with the intent of making good decisions; footwork that’s nice and crisp.

“It looked to me as if we were stuck on the crease and poking at the ball.”

The 124-run loss was the largest for any men’s T20 in which the first innings total was 150 or fewer.

Doggett’s score of four was the lowest ‘top-score’ in a completed men’s T20 innings, surpassing the previous low of seven.

Further, the three runs conceded by Thornton – who has nine wickets in just two games in a barnstorming start to KFC BBL|12 – was the most frugal five-wicket haul in Big Bash history.

Bayliss said the clash against Melbourne Renegades, who defeated Brisbane Heat in their Cairns season opener on Thursday, would be crucial to getting Sydney Thunder’s season back on track.

“(Thunder batters) are all very good players who have scored plenty of runs in the past.

“It won’t be easy, but someone has got to go out [against Renegades] and lead the way.

“We have very good players – top quality internationals and others who scored plenty of runs last year.”

Sydney Thunder squad vs Melbourne Renegades: Ben Cutting, Oliver Davies, Brendan Doggett, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Matthew Gilkes, Toby Gray, Chris Green (vc), Alex Hales, Baxter Holt, Nathan McAndrew, Alex Ross, Rilee Rossouw, Daniel Sams, Gurinder Sandhu, Jason Sangha (c).