ST vs SS

Sydney Sixers get on the board decimating their arch rivals Sydney Thunder and further extend their dominating record in the Sydeny Smash. With that, Thunder move to the bottom of the pile having lost two in two now while Sixers take a big jump up right from the bottom all the way up to third with their NRR skyrocketing into the positive. Tomorrow, we move to Geelong as Renegades host the defending champs Hurricanes. We'll catch you there, for now this is a goodbye from Sourabh Agrawal and Bidipto Datta. Cheers!

Josh Philippe (Player of the Match, 96 runs off only 57 balls and a stumping): "Felt really good! I didn't have the best couple of seasons before this, but, it's good to get the runs. Pretty happy! It was awesome to get that partnership going! We managed to take the innings deep, which worked for the team. I was always going to hit the ball for four or six at that stage of the innings, so...hopefully the hundred comes later on! We are really, really proud of the performance!" 

10:38 PM local time, 5:08 PM IST: MATCH SUMMARY

Sydney Sixers (198/5 in 20 overs) beat Sydney Thunder (151 all-out in 19.1 overs) by 47 runs

Josh Phillipe 96(57) | Jack Edwards 5/26(4)
Sam Billings 51(28) | Reece Topley 3/42(4)

That is that, Sydney Sixers register a thumping win over their rivals Sydney Thunder and get off the mark in the tournament after losing their first two matches. Sixers also make it 19-9 in their favor as far as the Sydney Smash goes in this history of BBL, they have certainly been dominant in this lopsided rivalry

It was all set up with the bat first up in the piece for them. Josh Phillipe with a remarkable 96 off 57 missed out on his first BBL century but he shared a 140-run partnership for the second wicket with Babar Azam (58 off 42) as the Sixers notched up a formidable 198 in the first innings. It could have been much more had they not stumbled in the final overs but in the end it proved to be well over par.

Sydney Thunder were never in the run chase and kept on losing wickets right from the first over. Gilkes started off with a hat-trick of boundaries in the first over to Murphy before walking past one and getting stumped, the caravan of wickets then began. Edwards got two more in the next over and Thunder found themsleves at 17/3 inside 3 overs with the top-3 back in the hut.

From there it was always going to be a steep ask, Sam Billings did try to make a match out of it with his 26-ball fifty but unfortunately got no support from the other end. The required rate kept climbing up and Billings could not take it deep enough and by the time he went, it was too much to do for Thunder. Shadab Khan did make a 31-ball 41 but it was too little too late as the rate was touching the sky there.

Sixers were excellent with the ball and this win is as much their bowlers' as it is their batters'. A maiden five-wicket haul for Jack Edwards who was the star with the ball and left-arm spinner Joel Davies chipped in with 3 wickets too in an impressive spell.

19.1 Kane Richardson to Reece Topley, SYDNEY SIXERS PICK UP THEIR FIRST WIN THIS SEASON AND ALSO WIN THE FIRST SYDNEY SMASH OF THE TOURNAMENT! Back of a length and slow on off-and-middle. Topley swung the bat hard off the back foot and cleared the in-field. But there was no way Jordan Silk at deep mid-wicket was getting cleared! He pouched it safely with fingers pointing up to finish the game! 

Final rites remaning, Thunder need 48 runs off the final over if anyone is still interested. Sixers will need to have one fielder extra up in the ring as a result of slow over-rate, might well prove to be an extra catcher for them

18.6 Ben Dwarshuis to Reece Topley, short and slow around off-stump. Topley gets a bit of bat on it to pat it away towards backward point for a single, off the back foot. 

18.5 Ben Dwarshuis to Reece Topley, short and climbing over off-stump. A big swing and a big miss off the back foot, swinging the bat across the line! 

18.4 Ben Dwarshuis to Reece Topley, FOUR RUNS! Back of a length and slow around off. Topley swatted it away over the top and away to the right of mid-off, from the back foot! 

18.1 Ben Dwarshuis to Tanveer Sangha, good length and slow around leg-stump from over the wicket. Sangha tucks it off the pads to the long-leg area for a risky couple of runs! He dives in to try and make the second, and the replays show that he has made it! 

Number 10 and 11 out in the middle for Thunder as Ben Dwarshuis [3.0-0-28-0] comes back to finish his quota and perhaps the match. Thunder are on the brink!

17.6 Jack Edwards to Reece Topley, back of a length and around off with pace taken off. Patted down to the backward point region off the back foot for no run.