Hobart Hurrcianes’s newcomer Jake Reed delivered one of the best spells of BBL 04 as his team defeated Sydney Thunders by 5 wickets in a rain-curtailed 17-over match at Sydney and kept their semi-final hopes alive.
Chasing a small target of 82 (according to D/L system), Hurricanes batsmen Ben Dunk and Michael Hill made light work of Sydney Thunders bowlers as both of them scored run a ball 20-odd to seal it for their team with 20 balls to spare. Jacques Kallis was the best bowler for Thunders as he finished with 2-18 in his 4 overs.
Earlier after being put into bat, Sydney Thunders got off to a worst possible start as Jake Reed grabbed the early wickets of English import Jason Roy (4) and Aiden Blizzard (6) before returning to dismiss Chris Hartley (1) and Daniel Hughes, who top-scored with 26. Both Jacques Kallis and Michael Hussey, upon whom Thunders hopes seem to rely, also failed to score today. Mark Cosgrove, who came in at number five, also struggled to score.
After the rain delay of 25 minutes, the match got reduced to 17 overs and in the anxiety to score some quick runs, Thunders lost 3 wickets for just 18 runs and slumped to 7-77 in their full quota of overs. Cosgrove played six overs out of these 17 and scored only 22 runs with a single boundary.
Reed was adjudged the man of the match for his brilliant spell of 4-11 in his 4 overs.
Brief Scores: Hobart Hurricanes 82/5 (Dunk 22, Hill 24, Kallis 2-18) defeated Sydney Thunders 77-7 (Hughes 26, Reed 4-11) by 7 wickets
Image Courtesy: cricketaustralia