Back at the location where Adelaide Strikers destroyed them for 15, Thunder’s opening pair of Matthew Gilkes and Alex Hales hammered half-centuries to pass the modest goal of 122 in the 12th over. Heat lost their first game since the start of the season, and Thunder improved to 1-3.
Thunder openers exorcise demons
11 deliveries were all it took for Thunder to surpass that terrible amount. Gilkes had a duck that evening and had only produced six runs in four innings this season, but he broke out of it by skillfully hitting great pitchers Mark Steketee and Michael Neser. Before Hales came over to guarantee that Thunder would not waste such a strong platform, Gilkes dominated early on.
Gilkes took advantage of the power surge that Thunder received in the 11th over by hitting three sixes and a four, scoring 25 runs off of legspinner Mitchell Swepson to notch his half-century.
After reaching his half-century, Hales promptly hit the winning boundary to guarantee that the home crowd joyfully erupted, in contrast to their mocking jubilation during the Strikers match. Thunder improved their net run rate and earned just the sixth 10-wicket victory in BBL history.
Heat’s bowlers struggle to fire a shot
Heat would have been confident given their offensive and Thunder’s bat weakness even if they had a low total to defend. There was a general assumption that Neser, who had taken six wickets in his previous two BBL games, including a hat-trick, would cause early issues.
But Heat never recovered because he was acting loosely, much like his accomplice in crime Steketee. The aggressive openers from Thunder gave Heat’s bowlers the impression that they were bowling on a different surface. They put on a lacklustre performance that saw them fall apart in the end, and they will need to start over if they want to rescue their sputtering season.
Qadir impresses on Thunder debut
Usman Qadir, a legspinner, had a good Thunder debut with 1 for 19 from four overs despite some help. His looping deliveries consistently teased the batsmen as he bowled accurately. Perhaps his most remarkable accomplishment was not giving up a boundary.
He was added to the team as cover for Tanveer Sangha’s injury. He is the son of renowned Pakistani spinner Abdul Qadir. Qadir, who has participated in 23 T20Is for Pakistan, played for Perth Scorchers in the BBL four years ago but had a lacklustre performance.
In the 10th over, with Heat faltering, he entered the fray and bowled cleanly during a time when established hitters Colin Munro and Jimmy Peirson tried to put the clamps on. Despite having a mixed bag in the field, Qadir was rewarded with the wicket of Peirson in the fifteenth over.
Although he reprieved Xavier Bartlett in the sixteenth over of the innings after taking a spectacular diving catch to remove opener Max Bryant in the second over, he was unable to match that performance on the boundary.