Sydney Sixers hand Hobart Hurricanes first home defeat of the summer
The Hobart Hurricanes quest for a maiden BBL title may be all but over thanks to a rampaging Steve Smith and the Sydney Sixers. See the result.
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The Hobart Hurricanes quest for a maiden BBL title may be all but over with a rampaging Steve Smith and the Sydney Sixers too much for the home side to contain at Blundstone Arena on Monday night.
The in-form Smith took ahold of the contest early, finishing with a game-high 66 off 33, with the finals bound Sixers enjoying the fruits of his labour to post a 7-180 scoreline and walk away with a 24-run win to end the Hurricanes undefeated run at Bellerive in BBL|12.
Hurricanes import Zak Crawley (49 off 45) did everything he could to drag the home side over the line but it wasn’t enough as they finished the 20 overs at 8-156.
While a win wasn’t necessarily required to keep their finals aspirations alive, Hobart will now be relying on one in their final game at UTAS Stadium on Wednesday night and hoping other results go their way beforehand.
Smith was at his rampaging best early in the innings and took until just the second over to find the first of his six sixes before pulling together 16 runs from the one legal delivery after a no-ball six followed a wide that escaped Matthew Wade behind the stumps went for four.
He survived a dropped catch by Caleb Jewell on the boundary in the fifth over before slicing another maximum that found itself on the roof of the Ricky Ponting Stand to bring up his fastest ever T20 half-century.
The former Australian Test captain, chasing the fourth-ever century at Bellerive, was well on his way to triple figures before a full-toss at leg stump that caught him lbw became his undoing at the hands of Hurricanes vice-captain Nathan Ellis (1-27) in the ninth over.
While he wasn’t able to score a third consecutive 100-plus innings, Smith looked a class above every other batter in the game and after making 292 runs from his last 155 balls, has given national selectors every reason to consider him for an opening position at next year’s T20 World Cup for Australia.
Sixers captain Moises Henriques finished with an unbeaten 23 runs while some big hitting from Ben Dwarshuis (30 off 14) saw the visitors post the highest score at Bellerive this summer.
Spin sensation Paddy Dooley returned from injury to finish with figures of 3-42 but was more expensive than usual thanks to the power hitting of Smith.
Chasing 181 for a win was too much for the Hurricanes to handle with openers Ben McDermott (13 off 11) and Jewell (7 off 7) both gone inside four overs and despite some promising resistance from Tim David (24 off 13) and Crawley it wasn’t enough to send the Hobart crowd home happy.
The Hurricanes will now turn their attention towards Wednesday’s clash in Launceston against the Brisbane Heat while the Sixers will enjoy three-days off before facing the Perth Scorchers in Friday’s qualifier.
Originally published as Sydney Sixers hand Hobart Hurricanes first home defeat of the summer
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