After the fall of Jos Buttler, I heard the commentators say that Sydney Thunder don't have enough or good batsmen after the first four. They were probably right to some extent because after Joe Root there wasn't any well known or experienced batter. The crowd in Canberra would have expected some show from these top four players which included the likes of Buttler, Watson and Root but to their disappointment these men couldn't do much. The two leg spinners from of Melbourne Stars, Adam Zampa and the debutant Sandeep Lamichhane were all over the Thunder batters and claimed two wickets each.
After the fall of two quick wickets, Jason Sangha joined Joe Root and stiched a small partnership of 30 runs. But after the fall of Joe Root, it looked like Thunder won't be able to put up a big score on the board but Sangha and Daniel Sams had other ideas. The duo came together at the score of 99 in the 13th over of the match. They started playing their shots immediately and took on the debutant Sandeep Lamichhane. Jason Sangha looked well in control of the game and played an excellent knock of 63 runs of just 36 balls at a strike rate of 175. He looked focused and composed and none of the tricks of the leggies worked against him. In his innings of 63 runs, he hit four sixes and four fours. Most of his runs came by hitting those pull shots towards square leg and mid wicket.
Daniel Sams on the other hand was very lucky to have faced 21 deliveries as he was dropped as many as three times , Larkin and Lamichhane being the culprits. He was dopped first by Larkin attempting to clear the long on fielder and again second drop was at long on by the same fielder while Sandeep Lamichhane dropped a chance when he was fileding at point. Sam's was able to take full advantage to the lives given to him and in the process scored 34 runs off 21 deliveries.
Sydney Thunder managed to score 181 in 20 overs for the fall of five wickets with Sangha and Sam's being the top scorers. For Stars, Adam Zampa was the pick of the bowlers and Sandeep Lamichhane also bowled really well.
The second innings of the match was rain hit and unfortunately we were not able to get a full game. The target was reduced to 90 runs which Stars had to get in 8 overs. Melbourne never really looked in the chase as it was Daniel Sams again, this time with the ball breaking the back of Stars. He picked up three wickets in two overs and just went for five runs. He bowled really nicely and his bowling looked much much better than his batting. Melbourne Stars managed to score just 74 runs for the loss of six wickets in eight overs.
Jason Sangha played a brilliant innings and I remember that @bjempire said that he can get the sticker of Scorum on his bat. Now that he has scored runs in this game, there will be lot of eyes on him and Big Bash being a multi million dollar league with hundreds of millions of people watching it around the world, it might be the best time to do a little marketing for Scorum especially when the betting exchange is up and running.
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