Sydney Thunder 144 for 2 (Gilkes 74*, Ross 40*, Rocchiccioli 2-25) beat Melbourne Renegades 142 for 9 (Sutherland 42*, Qadir 2-20, Green 2-24) by eight wickets
Sydney Thunder are withinside the BBL’s pinnacle 5 after cruising to an critical win in opposition to Melbourne Renegades on the Manuka Oval in Canberra. Set 143 for victory, Thunder opener Matthew Gilkes fired his group to victory with a first rate seventy four now no longer out withinside the nineteenth over.
The win moved Thunder to fourth at the desk with simply regular-season video games left, at the same time as third-positioned Renegades will nevertheless in all likelihood want any other win to punch their tickets to finals.
Star opener David Warner seemed in satisfactory contact and smacked a big six in his 26, however holed out at hand debutant spinner Corey Rocchiccioli his first BBL wicket.
Rocchiccioli made it wickets in balls whilst Ollie Davies chipped one to midwicket for a golden duck, however a Fawad Ahmed drop price him a 3rd wicket 3 balls later and vastly allow Thunder off the hook.
But it turned into a unprecedented blip for Thunder, knuckling down in the back of Gilkes who hit 8 fours and a six in his 55-ball innings. No. four Alex Ross supported Gilkes perfectly, feeding him the strike at the same time as making an unbeaten 40.
It turned into Gilkes’ 2d half-century of the tournament, having hit fifty six now no longer out in December in opposition to Brisbane Heat.
Renegades published 142 for nine after Will Sutherland’s forty two off 23 balls stored them from a small total. Martin Guptill carved 30 off 27 and captain Aaron Finch chipped in with 22, however neither failed to show their begins offevolved right into a massive rating as Renegades struggled.
Spinner Usman Qadir starred with critical wickets, such as the massive scalp of Finch simply as he seemed set to get his facet into the game.
Sutherland’s overdue fireworks that helped Renegades take 26 off their very last over had been much-needed, after a nine-over stretch that protected simply boundaries.
There’ll be a few alarm bells ringing for Renegades, having misplaced in their ultimate 3 video games heading into finals with the win requiring a ultimate-minute capitulation with the aid of using Melbourne Stars.