Super Sams steals victory from jaws of defeat

The match in a tweet: Super Sams seals it! A fiery clash ends with Ben Cutting getting revenge against his former side thanks to a late-hitting burst from the Thunder allrounder.

The score: Brisbane Heat 6-178 (Lynn 69, Wildermuth 31) lost to Sydney Thunder 6-180 (Sams 65, Cutting 29; Wildermuth 3-23) by four wickets with seven balls to spare.

The hero: After a nightmare campaign with the bat last summer, Daniel Sams produced a stunning match-winning display from No.7. 

Reduced to 5-80 in the 11th over and with two new batters at the crease, a Thunder victory in pursuit of 179 to win seemed unlikely. But with two big hitters in the middle, one of them with a point to prove against the side that cut him loose in the off-season, the game started to turn away from the Heat. Ben Cutting and Sams started to pepper the boundaries almost immediately and their scoring rate only increased when they called for the two-over Power Surge, which yielded 27 runs and brought the equation down to 50 needed from five overs. Mark Steketee got the big wicket of Cutting for 29 – and he gave his former teammate a send-off to go with it – but Sams continued on and incredibly sealed the win with seven balls to spare.

With 24 needed from the final two overs, Heat veteran Ben Laughlin bowled a no-ball full toss that Sams hammered for six before the right-hander landed three more massive blows in succession to ice the game, a total of 25 runs coming from the over as Sams finished on 65 not out from just 25 balls, 10 more runs than he made all of last season.

The welcome: Ben Cutting has not hidden his disappointment since being cut loose by the Heat in the off-season, lighting the fuse for a grudge match between the allrounder and his former side. And based on this reception he got from his former skipper when he walked out to bat, the ill-feeling is mutual.

The consolation effort: What a week it’s been for allrounder Jack Wildermuth. Last Thursday, the Queenslander was in T20 mode preparing for the Heat’s BBL opener before he was called into the Australia A squad as an injury replacement for Moises Henriques, meaning he suddenly had to switch his focus to long form cricket and a match against India. But he quickly found his feet against some of the best players in the world, taking four wickets and then posting just his third first-class hundred (an unbeaten 111 from just 119 balls) on Sunday before driving down the highway for a switch back to the 20-over format. And less than 24 hours after impressing against the tourists, he made an instant impact in his first game back for the Heat since an off-season switch from the Renegades, blasting 31 from just 11 balls with the bat and then taking three crucial wickets in nine balls having opened the bowling to seemingly put his side on course for victory.

The stat: Wildermuth’s innings of 31 from 11 balls gave him a strike rate of 281.81, the seventh highest in BBL history for all innings of 30 runs or more. Dan Christian’s innings of 34 from just nine balls in 2015 (a strike rate of 377.77) is the highest.

The skipper: What a strange night for Chris Lynn. Under investigation by Cricket Australia for a possible breach of COVID19 protocols, Lynn and teammate Dan Lawrence were cleared to play but were required to distance themselves from all other players and officials during the match, which meant they had to use a separate dressing-room, stand on the periphery of the pre-game huddle and sit in designated seats in the dugout, away from their teammates. But Lynn put the controversy aside to get back to his best in the middle, striking five sixes as he top-scored with 69 from 44 balls, a tally that included his 150th six in the Big Bash. With a depleted line-up early in the season, especially on a batting front, the Heat desperately need their skipper to stand up and tonight was a welcome sign of his best form.

The Bash Boost: Having lost three crucial wickets early on and with the required run rate starting to climb, the Thunder made the decision at the end of the seventh over to set their sights on the target of 80 they needed to reach at the 10-over mark to achieve the Bash Boost point, one of three new rules changes for this season. With 30 runs needed from 18 balls at that stage (and 129 from 78 to win the game), the Thunder gave themselves a chance with eight and 13 runs from the eighth and ninth overs respectively, leaving them nine to get from the 10th to get their first point of the season. But having blocked out a dot ball to start, forcing the issue cost Baxter Holt his wicket, the young wicketkeeper chipping a catch to long on to leave nine runs from four balls with a new batsman at the crease, a task that proved too much. But the disappointment of missing the extra point at the halfway mark was all but forgotten after Sams’ late blitz handed them the win.

The next stop: After two games each in Canberra, both teams have a break of around a week before they next appear. The Thunder will remain in Canberra ahead of their game against the Scorchers next Tuesday while the Heat will return home for a game against the Strikers at the Gabba on December 23.