BBL 2016/17: Top 5 moments from the Adelaide Strikers-Sydney Sixers clash

Languishing at the bottom of the table, Adelaide Strikers were in requisite of a much-needed win. Sydney Sixers, meanwhile, looked to replicate their healthy form at the Adelaide Oval. On New Year’s Eve, the stage was set for an electrifying contest.

Sydney Sixers’ decision to field first backfired for the first half of the 20 overs, courtesy cricket of the highest standards by Brad Hodge and Ben Dunk. Some crafty work led by Sean Abbott made amends for a horrendous start and the Adelaide Strikers were restricted to 152.

A one-sided second half helped by a drab batting display along with some marvellous bowling and fielding helped the Strikers to victory by 48 runs.

With the win, the Strikers pushed themselves one place up to number seven while Sydney Sixers stayed put in their number three position from their previous encounter against the Perth Scorchers.

Let’s have a closer look at the top five moments of the clash

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#5 Ben Dunk’s carnage

Ben Dunk got the Strikers off to a healthy start with a breezy knock

Two consecutive defeats prompted changes in the Strikers’ batting line-up and as a result, Ben Dunk was demoted down to number three. To the Strikers’ delight, the move didn’t backfire as Dunk went hell for leather to a score of 37 from 20 balls.

After coming in the fifth over, he peppered the boundary ropes and kept the Sixers bowlers at bay for a substantial period. Doug Bollinger was taken to the cleaners as Dunk thrashed him to all parts of the ground for 17 runs in five balls of Bollinger’s second over.

The swing of his bat was vicious enough to middle everything that came his way. He favoured scoring in the V behind the bowler’s arm as he racked up quite a few boundaries over the mid-on and mid-off region with some of them clearing the ropes with ease.

#4 Wickets in heaps

Sean Abbott’s spell of 4-0-16-5 was stupendous, but couldn’t fetch a win for the Sixers

Brad Hodge and Ben Dunk were taking the game by the scruff of the neck and threatened to tee off. Against the run of play, Dunk bit the dust, holding out to covers. But it was the twelfth over of the game from Sean Abbott that turned the game on its head.

Aided by two screamers on the outfield, first by Johan Botha at deep mid-wicket and then by William Somerville at fine-leg, Abbott snapped the wickets of Brad Hodge and Travis Head. Out of the blue, things turned on its head for the Strikers.

The insult to injury was perpetrated by Somerville, now with the ball, foxing Jake Lehmann to play a false shot and disturbing the timber. From 2/91, the Strikers slumped to 5/102 in a space of 17 balls. Abbott, eventually, stormed his way to the best figures by a Sydney Sixers bowler surpassing Nathan Lyon.

#3 Sixers collapse pulls it back for the Strikers

Wickets piled on for the Sixers and so does their agony

Defending 152, the Strikers had to penetrate the Sixers’ batting. Nonetheless, the Sixers got themselves off to a steady start with 34 runs from the first four overs. Daniel Hughes and Jason Roy looked at home as they rotated the strike along with taking advantage of the power-play.

It all started in the first ball of the fifth over when Roy mistimed a lofted shot into the palms of Chris Jordan, patrolling the long-on region. Ten balls later, Hughes was sent back to the dugout by Jordan as he looped a leading edge to mid-on.

Nic Maddinson didn’t take time returning back to the hut as he has picked up by Travis Head. Things turned from bad to worse as they lost two more wickets as Moises Henriques and Brad Haddin departed. From a position of strength, the Sixers were reeling at 5/46, with over 100 more runs to cross the finishing line.

#2 Brad Haddin’s bizarre dismissal

Haddin was dismissed hit-wicket for 1

With scores of seven and ten in his first couple of innings, Brad Haddin wasn’t having the greatest of times in this year’s Big Bash League. This game didn’t do any good to his campaign as his innings ended through an unusual mode of dismissal.

Billy Stanleke hurled in a 144 kph bouncer that got to Haddin a bit too quickly as he tried to play the pull shot out. He connected well, but trotted on to his stumps as a result of being too deep in the crease. Wickets were haemorrhaging from both ends and Haddin needed to step up to the plate, but that wasn’t the case for the Sixers.

Haddin’s wicket put the skids on the Sixers as their batsmen kept capitulating one after the other, making a hash of the chase.

#1 Chris Jordan’s stunner to dismiss Sam Billings

Sam Billings’ dismissal was the end of the road for the Sixers in the contest

With 72 runs required from the last four overs, it was all over bar the shouting. Sam Billings wasn’t willing to bow down though. Amid a flurry of wickets, Billings scorched a few to the boundary to re-ignite the Sixers’ hope of eking out their third win of the season.

Billings used the sweep shot to good effect as he kept depositing the fast bowlers to the boundary with sheer disdain. Nevertheless, the joy for Sixers’ fan was short-lived as Chris Jordan got rid of his English counterpart through an exquisite caught and bowled.

Billings threw the kitchen sink at a full and wide delivery and Jordan latched onto it, drilling the final nail in the coffin of the Sixers. With Billings gone, the hopes of the Sixers faded and they folded for 104 runs in the 19^th overs, handing the Strikers their maiden win of the season.