BBL 2019-20: Knockout, Adelaide Strikers vs Sydney Thunder – Thunder’s unbeaten streak over Strikers, Alex Hales’ consistency, Daniel Sams’ T20 record and more stats

Sydney Thunder continues their turnaround in the BBL 2019-20 as they knocked out Adelaide Strikers with an 8-run win on Saturday. Alex Hales scored 59 from only 35 balls with six fours and four maximums but Thunder added only 62 runs in 9 overs after his dismissal to finish on 151/7. The chase seemed to be a cakewalk for the home team as Jonathan Wells (34) and Alex Carey (28) shared a 50-run stand in only 35 balls. Carey got out when the Strikers needed 37 runs from 31 balls and the Adelaide franchise managed only 28 runs in the last five overs.

All the statistical highlights from Thunder’s close-win in the Knockout:

Thunder’s unbeaten streak over Strikers:

4 – Sydney Thunder has not lost any of their last four BBL matches against the Adelaide Strikers. Earlier this season, Thunder beat the Strikers by 3 runs at the Adelaide Oval while the game at Manuka Oval ended without a result. The Strikers also lost the last season match against Thunder by a 71-run margin at the Showground Stadium.

A big series with the bat for Hales:

6 – Number of fifties for Alex Hales in this Big Bash League; the joint-most fifty-plus scores in a single edition of BBL by a player. D’Arcy Short and Matthew Wade struck six fifties apiece during the 2018-19 season of BBL while Marcus Stoinis struck five fifties and an unbeaten ton in the ongoing edition.

5 – Alex Hales has scored four fifties in his previous five BBL innings and a score of 47 in the other inning. He thus became the first overseas player with five consecutive 40+ scores in the BBL and only 3rd player overall after Usman Khawaja and Marcus Stoinis.

A T20 record for Sams:

30 – Daniel Sams became only the 5th player to claim 30+ wickets in a series/tournament in Twenty20 cricket. Sams is also the first Australian and the first left-arm pacer with 30+ wickets in a T20 tournament. James Faulkner’s 28 wickets in the 2013 IPL are the previous most number of wickets by an Australian in a T20 tournament.

Rashid and Siddle share the top spot:

19 – Number of wickets for Rashid Khan and Peter Siddle in this tournament; the joint-most number of wickets by a player for the Adelaide Strikers in a single edition of Big Bash League.

Rashid also picked up 19 wickets in the previous edition and as many as 18 wickets in his debut season of 2017-18 across only 11 games.

Sams @ 50 in BBL:

52 – Daniel Sams completed 50 wickets in the Big Bash League with the first of the three wickets he picked up in this match. He is now the 21st player to claim 50 wickets in the league. Sams needed 35 innings to complete 50 wickets in the BBL; the joint 3rd quickest to get there in terms of innings after Rashid Khan (33) and Ben Laughlin (34).