The BBL had already seen a successful season, but Steven Smith gave one of its most impressive performances in front of a crowded SCG crowd to keep Sydney Sixers in the running for the top spot with a thrashing 125-run victory in the local derby against Sydney Thunder.
To the pleasure of the majority of the 38,757 spectators, Steven Smith followed up his 56-ball hundred against the Adelaide Strikers by matching that total. Despite having fought off spasms earlier in the day, the game was reduced to a 19-over affair due to a slightly delayed start.
Cross-town rivals Thunder had no answer as Smith finished with a career-best 125* from 66 balls, laced with nine sixes, as he controlled an unbeaten second-wicket of 155 with captain Moises Henriques. After Ben McDermott, he became the second player in the BBL to score back-to-back hundreds.
Smith’s innings, though, marked the contest’s high point as a whole. With David Warner, the contrast was glaring. Thunder never even hinted at having a chance to have an impact on the target, thus it took him 17 balls to reach the boundary.
After Sixers made the decision to bat, Smith got going right away, slicing his first pitch for four, playing an excellent back-foot drive against Chris Green in the second over, and then hitting Daniel Sams for his first six.
Gurinder Sandhu’s double strike in the fourth over, which occurred when Josh Philippe dragged on and Kurtis Patterson top-edged three balls after being dropped, temporarily put the home team in trouble, but Smith was in the zone.
Three overs from the fifth to the seventh did not result in a boundary during the consolidation phase, and then Smith dumped Joel Davies directly down the ground. That signalled a shift in gear for Smith, who made 50 from 31 balls in an over and once more sent Sams into the stands.
Usman Qadir, who had already suffered a nasty knock to the hand, spilled a return catch, giving Smith a life on the number 51. In the 15th over, Smith stormed into the 90s off Sandhu with two sixes in three balls before blasting Qadir over long-on for his second fifty, which required just 25 deliveries.
Even if there were valid reasons for it, Smith’s 125* was the highest T20 innings at the SCG, surpassing Shane Watson’s 124 against India in 2016. His efforts have brought attention to the fact that he was left off Australia’s T20 squad.
Although he took some hits for his efforts, the Sixers captain had one of the best seats in the house. The majority of the time, he was able to delegate the difficult work to Smith despite his early struggles. He was 15 off 19 balls when he sent Qadir over long-on.
A throw from the outfield bounced off the edge of the field and missed his helmet in the 14th over, causing him to suffer a painful blow to the chin. A fiercely hit drive off Sams that hammered into his thigh at the non-strikers’ end in the penultimate over put him in the firing line from Smith himself.
The third-wicket stand ended up being the second-best for Sixers in the BBL and the highest partnership for that wicket in the history of the competition.
After a considerably lengthier absence than Smith did, David Warner returned to the BBL, but Thunder has not seen anywhere near the same benefits.
He couldn’t have done much about Riley Meredith’s yorker against the Hobart Hurricanes, but he did play well against the Melbourne Renegades. Nevertheless, this was a miserable innings.
He faced only 23 balls when he was out in the tenth over, so he didn’t typically have much of a strike, but the frustration was evident because he couldn’t start his innings. He eventually spooned a catch into the side of the cunning Steve O’Keefe’s leg as Thunder’s pursuit collapsed into a heap.
The third slowest double-figure innings of Warner’s T20 career were the ones he eventually scored.
Despite only one game left, Thunder can still make the championship series despite some notable batting difficulties this season.
Currently, there is nothing particularly alarming about this, just something to keep an eye on. Nathan Lyon was benched for the second straight game as medical personnel took a preventative approach to a knee ache they were calling a lateral meniscus irritation.
He will be reevaluated prior to the Sixers’ final regular-season game against the Hobart Hurricanes on Monday, but no risks will be made due to the close proximity of the India visit and the fact that the Sixers are, for the time being at least, well-stocked for spinners.
When Lyon and Todd Murphy, who bowled exceptionally well in this game, leave for India, they will need to rely on their depth from the bench. By then, Smith will have left as well, but not without leaving his mark on the competition this year.