BBL: Sydney Thunder win sixth match in a row with victory over Hobart Hurricanes

Moved to Melbourne because of Covid and playing Hobart at the MCG the Sydney Thunder didn’t miss a beat on Monday.

World Cup winning coach Trevor Bayliss has taken the Sydney Thunder to new heights, securing a sixth-straight win for the first time in the club’s history.

The latest, a dominant nine-wicket win over the Hobart Hurricanes on Monday afternoon at a sun-drenched but empty MCG, has stamped the Thunder’s authority as the competition’s most in-form side.

In his second match after returning from Covid isolation, Englishman Alex Hales smashed 80 not out off 56 balls accelerating through the gears for a second straight half-century as his team easily chased down the target of 140 on neutral territory.

Failing to pass 35 in his first seven innings of the season, Hales has hit form after his exit from isolation, smacking 63 from 28 balls against the Melbourne Renegades on Saturday before backing that up against Hobart.

Alex Hales faced every ball of the Power Surge himself 😅

4 . . 4 4 1
4 4 . wd 4 6 .#BBL11pic.twitter.com/w3GC72TwZc

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) January 10, 2022

Hales also faced every single ball of the Thunder’s power surge, smacking 21 runs in the two-over hitting spree.

He was ably supported by 22-year-old stand-in skipper Jason Sangha (35 not out off 31).

The Thunder’s sixth consecutive win surpassed their previous best streak of five, and strengthens their hopes for a second BBL title later this month.

Bayliss, who won the 2019 World Cup with England after completely revamping the country’s approach to white ball cricket, was appointed in June to replace former Thunder coach Shane Bond.

He has taken the club into a golden age with a strong mix of youth and experience.

Everything Bayliss has touched this season has turned to gold this, particularly his pace signings of Saqib Mahmood, Muhammad Hasnain and Gurinder Sandhu, and the retention of imports Hales and Sam Billings.

The Thunder are the only team to beat the ladder-leading Perth Scorcher this season, a feat they’ve achieved twice.

And such is the strange nature of this year’s Big Bash, the Thunder and Hurricanes face off again on Thursday afternoon at Marvel Stadium.

Ben Cutting of the Thunder retrieves the ball from the empty Great Southern Stand at the MCG (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

No Poms, no worries

There were questions over how the Thunder would deal with the recent departures of Englishmen Billings and Mahmood (England red and white ball duty respectively).

Further, the club’s stand-in skipper Chris Green was recently deemed a Covid contact and they were forced to promote Sangha as skipper — their third captain for the season.

But they’ve maintained their form despite the setbacks.

“I actually thought that when Billings left, and they lost a couple of other players, it might slow them down a bit,” former Thunder player Mike Hussey said on Fox Cricket.

“But they’ve been able to maintain that momentum beautifully.

Ben McDermott hits out at the MCG (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

McDermott or bust?

For a fifth time in seven innings, it was Ben McDermott who top-scored for the Hurricanes.

The competition’s most in-form batter is head and shoulders above the rest of the competition, with his 495 runs considerably higher than the next best (Perth Scorchers’ Colin Munro, 353 runs).

With Matthew Wade on personal absence and D’Arcy Short — despite his run tally — struggling for fluency, McDermott is currently shouldering a big load.

Originally published as BBL: Sydney Thunder win sixth match in a row with victory over Hobart Hurricanes