Still on a roll, Hurricanes Captain, Pete Handscomb, won the bat flip, and elected to send the Thunder into bat. In a case of déjà vu, Thunder openers Alex Hales and Usman Khawaja got off to a flyer, racing away to 64 runs without the loss of a wicket after seven overs.
Enter; Scott Boland. Not only did he get the breakthrough the Hurricanes needed at the top of the eighth – danger-man Hales for 29 runs off 23 balls, aided by a spectacular catch by Nathan Ellis – but he took another two scalps off the same over to boot. Two balls following Hales’ departure youngster Oliver Davies was dismissed for a golden duck, followed by Khawaja another two balls later for 27.
Boland’s second over put a halt to the Thunder’s momentum, who after being 0-64 were 3-78 at the halfway mark of their innings with the bat. Callum Ferguson (23 off 24) and Sam Billings (50 off 34) did well to form a new partnership from scratch for the second half of their innings, and after their allotted 20 overs in the middle the Thunder had 5-177 on the board.
The Hurricanes’ chase got off to somewhat of a disastrous start, when Will Jacks – returning to the playing side for the first time since before Christmas – was dismissed for a golden duck on the first ball of the innings. Despite again looking in good touch at the crease, fellow opener, D’Arcy Short, fell two overs later for six runs, thanks to a spectacular catch from Hales off the bowling of Nathan McAndrew. It was then up to Ben McDermott and Dawid Malan to resurrect the Hurricanes’ innings in the middle.
And resurrect they did, building a 109-run partnership and claiming the Bash Boost point for the ‘Canes in the process. McDermott was in some kind of mood, putting on a show with an innings that included 8 fours and 5 sixes – at least two of which went right out of the Manuka Oval premises. The fun came to an end when Malan was dismissed for a well-made 42 off 28 in the 13th over, but McDermott stayed at the crease for a further four overs, getting oh-so-close to his maiden Big Bash century, before me caught out for 96 off just 56 balls in the 17th over.
Handscomb (21* off 16) and Tim David (7* off 2) were in the middle when the winning runs were hit, with the Hurricanes reaching the winning total with two overs remaining. McDermott was unsurprisingly named Player of the Match.
The Hurricanes will now travel to Melbourne tomorrow, ahead of their next match against the Perth Scorchers at Marvel Stadium on Friday.