Showground Stadium is almost sold out in what promises to be a blockbuster KFC BBL|13 Sydney Smash between the Thunder and Sixers
All you need to know: Sydney Thunder v Sydney Sixers
Match facts
Who: Sydney Thunder v Sydney Sixers
What: Match 19, BBL|13
Where: Sydney Showground Stadium
When: Saturday, December 30. Bat flip at 6.30pm AEDT, first ball at 7.15pm AEDT
How to watch: Fox Cricket, Kayo Sports
Buy tickets: Tickets are on sale here
Live scores: Match Centre
Highlights, news and reactions after the match: cricket.com.au, the CA Live and Big Bash apps
Officials: Sam Nogajski (field), Greg Davidson (field), Ben Treloar (third), Roberto Howard (fourth), David Gilbert (match referee)
Match squads
Thunder: Chris Green (c), Cameron Bancroft, Ollie Davies, Liam Doddrell, Matthew Gilkes, Toby Gray, Alex Hales (England), Liam Hatcher, Tom Kohler-Cadmore (England), Sam Konstas, Blake Nikitaras, Nathan McAndrew, Alex Ross, Daniel Sams, Will Salzmann, Gurinder Sandhu, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha
Sixers: Moises Henriques (c) Sean Abbott, Jackson Bird, Joel Davies, Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Ryan Hadley, Daniel Hughes, Hayden Kerr, Todd Murphy, Izharulhaq Naveed (Afghanistan), Stephen O’Keefe, Kurtis Patterson, Mitch Perry, Josh Philippe, Jordan Silk, James Vince (England)
Form guide
Thunder: LWLLL (most recent first)
They've slipped to 1-3 for the season, it's starting to get desperate for the Thunder in a shortened 10-game season. They've been in winning positions in those three losses but haven't been able to finish the job, including at the Gabba on Wednesday night when they bowled out the Heat for 172 and reached 1-92 in reply before falling 15 runs short. The Thunder have lost their last three at Sydney Showground Stadium and they'll be hoping to turn their fortunes around in their first game at the venue this season to get their BBL|13 campaign back on track.
Sixers: LWWWL
Despite a shock four-wicket final-over loss to the Stars in their last match, the Sixers remain one of the teams to beat in BBL|13. Won their opening three games of the campaign and will be looking to extend their winning streak over their crosstown rivals to five matches in the first of two Sydney Smash derbies this season.
KFC BBL|13 standings
| Team | M | W | L | T | N/R | NRR | Ded. | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1
HEA
|
10 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0.972 | 0 | 16 |
|
2
SIX
|
10 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.339 | 0 | 14 |
|
3
SCO
|
10 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0.725 | 0 | 13 |
|
4
STR
|
10 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0.331 | 0 | 11 |
|
5
HUR
|
10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | -0.268 | 0 | 8 |
|
6
STA
|
10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | -1.051 | 0 | 8 |
|
7
REN
|
10 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 2 | -0.288 | 0 | 6 |
|
8
THU
|
10 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 2 | -0.652 | 0 | 4 |
M: Matches played
W: Wins
L: Losses
T: Ties
N/R: No results
NRR: Net Run Rate
Ded.: Deductions
PTS: Total points
Players to watch
Thunder stalwart Alex Hales (1833) went past Usman Khawaja to become the club's all-time leading run-scorer during his innings of 28 in their last match against the Heat and is the only overseas player to achieve the accolade for their BBL team. After a slow start to BBL|13 with scores of 0, 18, 40 and 28, Hales will be looking to go big against the Sixers, a team he averages 33.10 against striking at 163.
More known for his red-ball skills, Jackson Bird has been on song swinging the white Kookaburra in BBL|13 with back-to-back two-fors following the suspension of Tom Curran. He leads the Sixers attack after four games with six wickets at an economy rate of 8.35. The Sixers' own overseas stalwart, James Vince also found his grove with 83 in their last match against the Stars after scores of 1, 5 and 10 to start the tournament.
Head-to-head
Overall: Thunder (7 wins), Sixers (16 wins)
At Showground Stadium: Thunder (4 wins), Sixers (3 wins)
Most runs: Daniel Hughes (497), Moises Henriques (492), Nic Maddinson (339), Jordan Silk (263), Alex Hales (233)
Most wickets: Sean Abbott (25), Daniel Sams (17), Ben Dwarshuis (16), Steve O'Keefe (15), Fawad Ahmed (13)
The venue
Rapid stats
- Sydney Sixers have won their last four BBL matches against the Sydney Thunder, as many as they won across their nine meetings in the competition prior to that span.
- Sydney Thunder have lost each of their last three BBL matches at Sydney Showground Stadium – a fourth consecutive defeat in this game would equal their longest losing run at the venue in the history of the competition (lost four from January-December 2016).
- Sydney Sixers have scored 52 per cent of their runs from boundaries against the Sydney Thunder in the BBL, their best rate against any team in the history of the competition. The Sixers have hit a boundary once every 6.6 balls faced against the Thunder, their most frequent rate against any team in the Big Bash.
- Alex Hales (Sydney Thunder) is one away from becoming the fifth player to hit 100 sixes in BBL history and the first from outside Australia. Hales was dismissed for a duck in his most recent innings against the Sixers on January 8, 2023.
- Ben Dwarshuis (99) is one away from becoming the third player to reach 100 appearances for the Sixers in BBL history after Moises Henriques and Jordan Silk). His bowling average against the Thunder (20.8) is his second best against any team in his BBL career (14.4 v Melbourne Renegades).
What's on the line?
Defeat for the Thunder would leave them facing an uphill battle to qualify for finals with captain Chris Green admitting after their loss to the Heat they desperately needed "to turn some of these close results around in our favour". With a gap opening up between the top three and the chasing pack, a win in the Sydney Smash would help the Thunder stay in touch with the top four. The Sixers are looking very good again this season and a fourth win from five games would lift them above the Scorchers into second and one point off pace setters Brisbane Heat.
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