Heat thump Thunder to continue unbeaten run

Brisbane Heat continued their reign at the top of the points table with a 15-run win over Sydney Thunder at the Gabba. It was their fourth win in BBL 2023-24 and they are yet to lose a match this season.

Opting to bat first, Heat lost Colin Munro to Gurinder Sandhu in the first over but then PoTM Nathan McSweeney (73 off 52) and opener Josh Brown (39 off 29) added 106 crucial runs for the second wicket. The hosts were 90/1 at the halfway mark and should ideally have gotten more than the 172 they eventually managed but Daniel Sams and his five-wicket haul stood in the way, the feat helping Thunder tie down things in the latter half of that innings.

Brown was Sams' first scalp before he went on a roll in his last over, picking the remaining four wickets across those six balls. Zaman Khan picked Michael Neser's wicket to end the innings with two balls still to go.

Chasing 173, which felt like a good total on the surface, Thunder were off to a fine start thanks to Cameron Bancroft (46 off 39) and Alex Hales (28 off 22) adding 58 runs for the first wicket. Once Hales departed, Bancroft and Jason Sangha added 34 runs but once this stand was broken by Mitchell Swepson, the wickets kept coming and kept robbing Thunder off the momentum.

Xavier Bartlett, who finished with figures of 3 for 29, first dismissed Bancroft and then returned later to pick the wickets of Chris Green and Sandhu. Spencer Johnson and Matthew Kuhnemann picked two apiece as Thunder were kept to 157/9 in their 20 overs.

Brief Scores: Brisbane Heat 172 in 19.4 overs (McSweeney 73; Sams 5-30) beat Sydney Thunder 157/9 in 20 overs (Bancroft 46; Bartlett 3-29) by 15 runs