Sydney Thunder beat Sixers by Five Wickets in an Exciting Encounter

The eighth edition of the Big Bash League(BBL) got off to an exciting start as Sydney Thunder registered a five-wicket win over Sydney Sixers in the first match of the tournament as the game went into the last ball. Thunders captain Shane Watson won the toss and put the Sixers to bat first who managed to register 149 on the board. The game went into the wire as Thunders scored the winning run in the last ball of the match to emerge victorious in the Sydney derby.

Sixers received the first blow as they lost Jason Roy in the third over as he was outdone by a cross seam delivery to play it into the hands of the cover point. Daniel Hughes and Nic Maddinson scored heavily after the loss of the first wicket as Sixers reached the fifty-run mark in the sixth over; however, Maddinson was caught plumb in front of the wicket off Fawad Ahmed as Sixers were striving at 55 for 2. From then on, Sixers lost wickets at regular intervals although English international Sam Billings tried to put up a big score before he got run out at the score of 32 runs.

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Leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed was outstanding as he picked up two wickets for 11 runs in his quota of 4 overs well supported by Kiwi international Mitchell McClenaghan and Arjun Nair. Sixers posted an average total of 149 runs on the scoreboard as Sam Billings topped the batting chart.

In reply, Thunder witnessed a setback as they lost Jos Buttler in the first over the innings caught by Daniel Sams off his bowling. Skipper Shane Watson and Kurtis Patterson then started to build the innings as Watson played a magical knock of 77 runs in just 46 balls to put the Thunder ahead. However, subsequent wickets in the middle overs saw the match slipping away from the hands of the Thunder before Nair and Aiden Blizzard muscled the ball to cross the rope in the last ball of the match.

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Daniel Sams tried his level best to bring the match to their favour as he finished with four wickets giving away only 14 runs from his four overs.

Watson was adjudged the man of the match for his match-winning knock as Thunder bagged two important points to start off the campaign. Thunder will take on the Adelaide Strikers in the next match scheduled to be played on December 22nd, whereas Sixers will play the Hobart Hurricanes on December 23rd.

rief Score: Sydney Sixers 149/9 (Billings 32, Maddinson 31) Fawad Ahmed 2/11

Sydney Thunder 150/5 ( Watson 77, Patterson 29) Daniel Sams 4/14

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