Hales, Davies shine in Albury as Thunder hold off 'Canes

Sydney Thunder have held their nerve in the face of an onslaught from Matthew Wade as the Hobart Hurricanes briefly threatened to pull off the biggest run chase in KFC BBL history.

Set an imposing 229 for victory in front of an almost capacity 10,171 crowd in the first BBL match for competition points in Albury, the Hurricanes had raced to 2-101 at the halfway mark of their innings.

Skipper Wade, who returned from a one-game suspension, sent six deliveries flying over the rope as he brought up his equal quickest fifty in the Big Bash off 19 balls that included three ramps for six from his first five balls faced.

But his dismissal two balls after the drinks break for 67 from 30 balls signalled the beginning of the end for the visitors as they lost their last six wickets for just 24 runs.

Tim David – elevated to No.4 for the first time this season after head of strategy Ricky Ponting flagged a shift up the order prior to the season – was the only other Hurricanes batter to get going with 25 from 15 balls.

But he was caught short of his ground attempting a desperate second run in the 14th over courtesy of a ripping throw by substitute fielder Joel Davies – the younger brother of Thunder blaster Ollie, who had earlier smoked his career-best T20 score.

Joel scooted in from the mid-wicket boundary, with David slipping slightly as he turned for the second, before nailing the throw over the stumps to wicketkeeper Matt Gilkes who broke the bails with David about two feet short of the crease.

From there the Hurricanes collapsed as the asking rate climbed, all out for 166 in 17 overs to fall short by 62 runs.

Brendan Doggett was the chief destroyer with 4-35, while Ben Cutting finished with 2-16 in his first game of the tournament, which included the big wicket of Wade.

Earlier, Alex Hales (77 off 45) and Ollie Davies (65 off 32) had led the Thunder to at mammoth 6-228 – the fourth highest total in BBL history.

The pair took full advantage of the shorter boundaries at Lavington Sports Ground, depositing nine deliveries between them into the crowd as they put on 105 runs for the third wicket.

The first time the Thunder scored less than 10 runs in an over was in the seventh and only Nathan Ellis (4-37) consistently troubled the batting order.

England opener Hales notched his 15th Big Bash half century to become the first batter to surpass 200 total runs this tournament.

But in his 22nd BBL appearance, Davies stole the show with his maiden BBL half century from only 24 balls.

Matthew Gilkes also proved his lean start to BBL|12 was well and truly in the past with a speedy 33 runs, the highlight of which was three consecutive fours off the bowling of breakout spin star Paddy Dooley.

It's a stark contrast in the batting fortunes for the Thunder at the start of the tournament who just two weeks ago were rolled for a world-record low total of 15 all out but the Adelaide Strikers.