Quantcast

Thunder drop the ball to hand Heat the win

Chris Lynn the hero with an unbeaten 81 to steer the Brisbane Heat home as Sydney Thunder drop three match-turning catches in the final overs

The result: Sydney Thunder 7-157 (Morgan 52, Badree 2-20) lost to the Brisbane Heat 7-160 (Lynn 85*, Fawad 2-19) by three wickets with two balls to spare

The match in a tweet: Chris Lynn steals with unbeaten knock the show but Syndey Thunder will rue multiple dropped catches in final overs as Heat go top of BBL|06

The Lynnsanity: What a knock from the Queensland hero! In from just the third ball of the match, he mixed power with placement to thwart the Thunder attack. He struggled to get on strike in the early overs – he'd only faced 18 balls by the nine over mark – but when he did, he made it count. Lynn's knock was not without some luck – dropped twice with the game on the line – but finished with an unbeaten 85. The 48-ball knock included 10 boundaries and three monster sixes.

Dynamic Lynn inspires Heat’s triumph

The drops: Andre Russell, Jake Doran and Shane Watson all dropped catches in the final overs that could well have turned the match in the Thunder's favour. All were easy catches – Grade 1 errors on the new 'Fielding Average' introduced this season by Cricket Australia – and any would have turned the match. Russell dropped Jake Wildermuth on the boundary, and it cost six runs – as did the next ball. Doran dropped Lynn when a Pat Cummins rocket beat the batsman for pace and ballooned off the gloves. And in the final over Shane Watson inexplicably put down the simplest of chances at cover. Add to that Ryan Gibson running in off the fence only to have Lynn hit it just over his head – it would have been a simple chance had he stayed on the rope – and Thunder have only themselves to blame.

Thunder catch a case of butterfingers

Thunder-struck: Pat Cummins cranked up the heat in his opening two overs. A 150kph thunderbolt catapulted into the stumps of Heat skipper Brendon McCullum. He went even quicker the next over – 151kph to saw through Alex Ross's defence. The young tyro was pumped up as he continues to impress, sparking the inevitable calls for him to be rushed back into the Australian Test squad from the social media selectors.

Brisbane left Thunder-struck by rapid Cummins

The riposte: Starved of the strike, the Brisbane Heat's biggest basher showed a glimpse of what he can do when Cummins was bowled for a third straight over. Four. Four. Four. Four. Four. That's what Lynn thought of Cummins demolition of the Brisbane top order, sending the speedster sailing to the boundary line.

Lynn takes wind out of Cummins sails

Back in black: Has there ever been more hype about a piece of wood? Banned, then un-banned again, Andre Russell's new and improved black and hot pink bat returned to Big Bash action. Sadly for Thunder fans, the bat didn't come with magic powers, as Russell fell for his third low score of the tournament in as many games. An early top edge fells safely, and was followed by a four, hinting maybe he was due a change of fortunes. But moments after his game was dissected by Ricky Ponting and Mark Waugh, who identified a weakness against the short ball, he departed – in exactly the manner the legends predicted. It seems BBL clubs have cottoned on.

Russell flops again, but who claims this catch?

The skipper's knock: Sydney Thunder welcomed back their skipper from injury for his BBL|06 debut, but it wasn't for long as the big-hitting allrounder departed without scoring, undone by a peach of a delivery from Mark Steketee who pinned the top of off-stump.

Watson cleaned up by Steketee for a duck

The consolation effort: Eoin Morgan held the Thunder innings together with a well-constructed half-century. The Ireland-born England Twenty20 skipper showed why he's one of the most consistent in the shortest format, with two boundaries and three important sixes. It looked like it could have been a match-winning knock at one point, but ultimately proved to be a valiant effort in a losing cause.

Morgan maximums get Thunder rolling

The big finish: Mitchell Swepson had picked up a key wicket but had been expensive in his two previous overs, going for 28 runs. So it was a bit of a gamble for Heat skipper Brendon McCullum to throw him the ball for the final six balls of the Thunder innings. It backfired. Chris Green lashed the final three balls into the Spotless Stadium stands and the Thunder added 21 runs.

Six! Six! Six! Thunder end with a bang

Not quite Spotless: When Ryan Gibson charged at Samuel Badree and was beaten, it should have been a simple stumping for Heat 'keeper Jimmy Peirson. But the gloveman fluffed his lines, with a couple of fumbles but, indicative of how far down the track Gibson was, Peirson was able to complete the dismissal, flat on his back.

Peirson pieces it together ... on the third attempt

The stat: McCullum brought up 7,000 T20 runs – only the third player to do so. The others? Chris Gayle and Brad Hodge.


Image Id: /~/media/8A3DEB6FC3904449A52EF626309D7813

Image Id: bigbashcomau/Images/Generic/fantasy-banner.jpg