The Sydney Smash is set to be a thriller with both sides fighting to stay undefeated in BBL|14
Sydney Thunder v Sydney Sixers: match preview
Match facts
Who: Sydney Thunder v Sydney Sixers
What: Match 8, KFC BBL|14
Where: ENGIE Stadium, Sydney
When: Saturday, December 21, 2024. 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: Shawn Craig and Gregory Davidson (field), Sharad Patel (third), Claire Polosak (fourth) David Gilbert (match referee)
Match squads
Sydney Thunder: David Warner (c), Wes Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Sam Billings, Ollie Davies, Lockie Ferguson, Chris Green, Sam Konstas, Nathan McAndrew, Tom Andrews, Sherfane Rutherford, Daniel Sams, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha.
In: Tom Andrews Out: Blake Nikitaras, Will Salzmann (injured)
Sam Konstas has been included in the Sydney Thunder squad after receiving a call-up to the Australia Test squad.
Tom Andrews has been called into the squad in place of the injured allrounder Will Salzmann.
Sydney Sixers: Moises Henriques (c), Sean Abbott, Joel Davies, Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Akeal Hosein, Hayden Kerr, Todd Murphy, Kurtis Patterson, Mitch Perry, Josh Philippe, Lachlan Shaw, Jordan Silk, James Vince.
In: Akeel Hussain, Kurtis Patterson Out: Jafer Chohan, Daniel Hughes (elbow)
Highly regarded West Indian allrounder Akeel Hussain has come into the squad ahead of his six-game stint with the club.
Kurtis Patterson who has been in superb form in domestic cricket for NSW comes into the extended squad as well.
Daniel Hughes comes out after a season ending elbow injury from the Sixers' last game against the Melbourne Renegades and Jafer Chohan.
Club news
Sydney Thunder
Sydney Sixers
Get the latest
Top performances
Most Runs
BBL|14 BKT Golden Bat
| Player | Total |
|---|---|
1
Mitchell Owen
M Owen
|
452 |
|
2
David Warner
D Warner
|
405 |
|
3
Cooper Connolly
C Connolly
|
351 |
|
4
Glenn Maxwell
G Maxwell
|
325 |
|
5
Marcus Stoinis
M Stoinis
|
311 |
|
6
Matthew Renshaw
M Renshaw
|
280 |
|
7
Sam Billings
S Billings
|
271 |
|
8
Max Bryant
M Bryant
|
259 |
Most Wickets
BBL|14 BKT Golden Arm
| Player | Total |
|---|---|
|
1
Jason Behrendorff
J Behrendorff
|
17 |
|
2
Riley Meredith
R Meredith
|
16 |
|
3
Tom Rogers
T Rogers
|
16 |
|
4
Mark Steketee
M Steketee
|
15 |
|
5
Lance Morris
L Morris
|
15 |
|
6
Lloyd Pope
L Pope
|
15 |
|
7
Ben Dwarshuis
B Dwarshuis
|
14 |
|
8
Spencer Johnson
S Johnson
|
13 |
Most sixes scored
BBL|14
| Player | Total |
|---|---|
|
1
Mitchell Owen
M Owen
|
36 |
|
2
Glenn Maxwell
G Maxwell
|
27 |
|
3
Cooper Connolly
C Connolly
|
19 |
|
4
Tim David
T David
|
17 |
|
5
Matthew Renshaw
M Renshaw
|
17 |
|
6
Max Bryant
M Bryant
|
14 |
|
7
Josh Brown
J Brown
|
12 |
|
8
Jake Fraser-McGurk
J Fraser-McGurk
|
12 |
Local Knowledge
Rapid stats
- The Sydney Sixers have won their last five BBL matches against the Sydney Thunder, as many as they won across their 12 meetings in the competition prior to that span (W5 L7).
- The Sydney Thunder defeated the Adelaide Strikers by two wickets last time out in the BBL, snapping a five-match losing run in the competition; the Thunder will be aiming for back-to-back wins for the first time since January 2023.
- The Sydney Sixers have scored more than 70% of their runs from boundaries during the death overs (17th-20th) in each of their last two BBL innings; they had done so only three times during this period across their 25 innings prior to that span.
- Moises Henriques (Sydney Sixers) has scored 45+ runs in three of his last four BBL innings (47*, 59, 25, 53*); he was dismissed for only eight runs in his most recent innings against the Sydney Thunder (12 January 2024) after scoring 253 runs at an average of 63.3 across his seven innings prior against them.
- Tanveer Sangha (48) is two away from becoming the fifth player to take 50 wickets for the Sydney Thunder in BBL history (Daniel Sams, Chris Green, Gurinder Sandhu, Nathan McAndrew); he recorded figures of 2-22 in his most recent innings against the Sydney Sixers (12 January 2024) after going wicketless in each of his two innings against them prior in the competition.
What's on the line?
Both teams have the chance to keep their BBL campaigns unbeaten with a 2-0 start, although, there will be one loser at the end of the day.
There is also a spot in the top four on the line at the completion of the match with Sixers currently in fourth and Thunder in fifth as of Friday afternoon.
KFC BBL|14 standings
| Team | M | W | L | T | N/R | NRR | Ded. | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
HUR
|
10 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | -0.12 | 0 | 15 |
|
2
SIX
|
10 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.156 | 0 | 14 |
|
3
THU
|
10 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0.34 | 0 | 12 |
|
4
STA
|
10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.135 | 0 | 10 |
|
5
SCO
|
10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0.219 | 0 | 8 |
|
6
REN
|
10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0.139 | 0 | 8 |
|
7
HEA
|
10 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 1 | -0.831 | 0 | 7 |
|
8
STR
|
10 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 0 | -0.122 | 0 | 6 |
M: Matches played
W: Wins
L: Losses
T: Ties
N/R: No results
NRR: Net Run Rate
Ded.: Deductions
PTS: Total points
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