15 all-out! Sydney Thunder struck by Adelaide Strikers’ lightning in lowest ever T20 total

Adelaide Strikers bundled out Sydney Thunder for 15 in just 5.5 overs in a BBL 2022-23 fixture in Sydney on Friday, December 16, making for the lowest ever total in all Men's T20 cricket.
 By CX Staff Writer Dec 16, 2022, 17:35 IST
Lowest T20 total?width=963&height=541&resizemode=4
Henry Thornton bagged 5/3, while Wes Agar returned 4/6.

Sydney Thunder find themselves topping a list of a rather unwanted record, having been bundled out for mere 15 in 5.5 overs by the Adelaide Strikers in the fifth match of the ongoing Big Bash League (BBL) 2022-23 at Sydney's Showground Stadium on Friday, December 16. Thunder crumbled stunningly in a 140-run chase, registering the lowest innings total in Men's T20 cricket to go down by 124 runs. They went past Turkey’s previous record of 21 all-out in 8.3 overs against the Czech Republic at the Ilfov County ground in August 2019.

It is comfortably the lowest total in BBL history, bettering Melbourne Renegades’ 57 all-out in 12.4 overs against the Melbourne Stars back in 2014-15.

Henry Thonrton and Wes Agar were the wreckers-in-chief for the Strikers, bagging 5/3 from 2.5 overs and 4/6 from two overs respectively.

Matthew Short started it off for the strikers, dismissing Matthew Gilkes with his part-time off-spin in the very first over. He then snaffled a brilliant catch in the lone slip to send back Rilee Rossouw on the second ball of Thornton’s spell, before Thunder skipper Jason Sangha drove loosely to one outside off to get an outside edge through to wicketkeeper Harry Nielsen.

Nielsen would bag four more catches soon after, becoming only the third gloveman in BBL history to register five dismissals in an innings, joining Tom Triffitt (Perth Scorchers vs Melbourne Renegades, 2012) and Jimmy Peirson (Brisbane Heat vs Adelaide Strikers, 2020).

Earlier, Strikers posted 139/9 from the allotted 20 overs after having opted to bat, with Chris Lynn (36 off 27) and Colin de Grandhomme (33 off 24) being the chief contributors.

"Have no clue what's going on, it's amazing," said Thornton, who was named the Player of the Match. "We thought they bowled really, really well considering what the wicket was doing, but we hung in there long enough. Haven't seen anything similar to this ever, unbelievable stuff to be honest. We just thought that if we could bowl on top of the stumps, we were clear on what we have to execute. I think we got a lot of nick-offs and Short took one of the best catches at first slip.

"Really happy for Wes Agar, he bowled really well. Was super disciplined, great performance by him. Pretty unique (bowling with three slips), I just couldn't believe it. Lynn was like if you want two or three slips, it was quite amazing. To have guys like Lynn next to you, it's amazing. To be honest I couldn't believe it. Thought 150 would be good but turned out to be enough."

From around the web