Twitter Reactions: Wade and Short's heroics keep Hobart Hurricanes' hopes alive

In a game that recorded 369 runs at the loss of 16 wickets, only 7 runs separated the winners Hobart Hurricanes from the Sydney Sixers. With the playoffs approaching, it will not be a false alarm to raise for the second-placed Sixers, who have lost two in a row after dominating the points table for the larger part of the tournament. The decision of electing to field first for the Sixers could not have gone worse as they were belted from all corners by the opponent openers Matthew Wade and D’Arcy Short.

It was Wade, who made a quick move on in the third over, slamming a hat-trick of fours off Carlos Braithwaite’s 17-run over. Short did not take too long before joining the party alongside his Australian counterpart, as he punched Jake Ball through mid-off for four before slapping another one through the covers. There was not a single over before the 10th when the duo did not manage to score at least one boundary.

Wade and Short grill the luckless Sixers 

Pulling a short delivery from Jake Ball, Wade notched up his half-century off just 28 balls in the 10th over, whereas Short completed the landmark in the immediately following over in style too: chipping Dwarshuis’ ill-executed yorker over long-off for a six. The clueless bowlers got no respite until the 15th over, as that was when Wade, having hit 10 fours and three sixes in his blistering 44-ball 86, found the short third man off Sean Abbott, to give him his 100th BBL wicket. After the break of the stellar 145-run opening stand, the Hurricanes lost their way a bit as they lost wickets in heaps.

Ben McDermott swung his bat hard against Dan Christian but could only make the ball reach as far as Abbott, who took a running catch from long-off. Abbott then struck in the 18th over, cleaning up Short, who finished at 72 from 52, featuring 7 fours and three sixes. Jake Ball then got both Dawid Malan and Will Jack caught cheaply in the penultimate over, whereas Dwarshuis undid Tim David and Nathan Ellis in the final over as the Scorchers finished 188 for 8.

Sixers’ unimposing start

The start for the Sixers was not even half as impressive as their opponents, as they lost their top-three inside the first 5 overs of their response, with merely 37 on the board. Scott Boland made early inroads as he trapped Josh Philippe (12 from 8) LBW and struck again in the fifth over to get rid of Daniel Hughes, who edged one to Tim David at mid-on, much like James Vince (5 from 9), who perished to Nathan Ellis in a similar fashion only an over before.

It was a counterattacking 70-run stand from merely 40 deliveries between Moises Henriques and Jordan Silk that brought the team on the course of the chase. To make matters worse, Short was kind enough to give Henriques as many as two lives, riding on which he slammed 43 from 25, with 4 sixes and a four, before Lamichchane finally removed him in the 12th over to bring his threatening alliance with Silk to an end. The spinner struck on the immediately succeeding delivery as he sneaked into the gap between Daniel Christian’s bat and pad, cleaning him up for a duck.

Silk’s valiance in vain

However, that did not budge Silk, whose single-handed assault scared the Hurricanes to a good extent. The Power Surge for the Sixers did not prove much fruitful – it fetched 21 from two overs – after they lost Carlos Brathwaite on the first ball of the surge, although Silk continued in his rhythm from the other end.

Sixers needed an improbable 39 from the last 12, which is when Silk was given life too. 11 runs from Nathan Ellis in the penultimate over meant that Riley Meredith had 28 to defend. He bowled two above-waist no balls, one of which was deposited for a six, reducing the situation to 15 needed off four. The nail in the coffin for the Sixers came when Silk (78 from 49) holed out to deep midwicket and Sixers fell short by 7 runs.

Here are the best tweets