Oliver Davies steers Sydney Thunder to comfortable win
The win put Thunder joint-top on the points table with Scorchers, who had their winning run at home snapped
AAP
04-Jan-2023
Oliver Davies picked up the Player of the Match award for his 47-ball 58 • Getty Images
Sydney Thunder 143 for 4 (Davies 58, Ross 41*) beat Perth Scorchers 142 for 9 (Turner 61, McAndrew 3-29) by six wickets
A well-crafted half-century by Oliver Davies steered Sydney Thunder to an impressive six-wicket BBL win against the Perth Scorchers at Optus Stadium on Wednesday night.
Thunder restricted the home side to 142 for 9 from their 20 overs, then chased down the target with three overs to spare.
Davies made 58 from 47 balls, including four fours and two sixes, leaving his side to get 29 from 31 balls when he holed out to mid-off.
Alex Ross finished the job, blasting an unbeaten 41 off 18 balls, including three fours and three sixes.
To make matters worse for the home side, star seamer Jhye Richardson was unable to finish his spell, leaving the ground injured with two balls remaining in his fourth over.
The result drew the Thunder level with top-of-the-table Scorchers with five wins, and snapped the latter's run of eight wins at Optus Stadium.
Thunder were in trouble at 10 for 2 after two overs, with Richardson on a hat-trick after he dismissed overseas players Alex Hales and Rilee Rossouw for ducks.
But Davies joined Matthew Gilkes (32) at the crease, and the pair put on a crucial 67-run partnership from 52 balls.
Scorchers had got off to a poor start too, stumbling to 47 for 4 after 10 overs, but the visitors threw off their early struggles to move to 75 for 2 at the same point of their innings, needing 68 runs from the remaining 60 deliveries.
Earlier, Ashton Turner was the only Perth batter to trouble the Thunder bowlers, belting 61 from 37 balls. This came after Scorchers chose to bat and fell to 10 for 2 after the first four powerplay overs, their first boundary coming off the fourth ball of the fifth over.
In his final appearance of the tournament, Faf du Plessis fell for 1, caught at third man after he top-edged a ramp shot. It continued a lean run at Optus Stadium for him; he made scores of 14, 6, 3 and 1 in front of home fans to finish with a total of 163 runs, including a high score of 68, from his seven innings.
Oliver Davies' younger brother Joel made his BBL debut and was never far from the action, catching Cameron Bancroft and Nick Hobson, and firing searing balls in from the deep that saw Adam Lyth and Matt Kelly run out.
Chris Green, with 1 for 15 from four overs, was economical, while Nathan McAndrew (3 for 29 from four) removed danger man Turner as he accelerated toward the back end of the innings.