McAndrew five-for sends Thunder into BBL challenger final

The Sydney Thunder defeated the Melbourne Stars in a rain-affected BBL 14 eliminator final on Wednesday night at ENGIE Stadium, winning by 21 runs courtesy of Nathan McAndrew’s figures of 5/16.

Coming into the match, Melbourne were riding a five-match win streak and came in as favourites across cricket betting sites to prevail in the knockout clash.

However, a team effort with the bat and some individual brilliance with the ball got Sydney over the line, booking their place in the BBL 14 challenger final on Friday night.

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There were early concerns for the Thunder when the side’s top runscorer, David Warner, was out for a duck second ball.

Hugh Weibgen (11 from 11) and Matthew Gilkes (28 from 18) rebuilt nicely though, getting Sydney through to 2/37 before Weibgen fell on the other side of a brief rain delay.

Sam Billings (24 from 25) and Oliver Davies (36 from 35) also made handy contributions in tricky batting conditions, with the hosts spluttering through to 7/135 from their 19 overs — all they were allowed after the rain interruption.

In response, the Stars’ top order was devastated by the pace of McAndrew.

The seamer ran through Sam Harper (6 from 3) and Thomas Rogers (1 from 4) inside his first eight balls before picking up Hilton Cartwright (15 from 11), Mark Steketee (18 from 13) and Doug Warren (7 from 8) later in the innings.

These regular wickets effectively stymied any hope Melbourne had of chasing down the target, despite the in-form Glenn Maxwell again top scoring with 28 runs from 21 balls.

The Stars were ultimately bowled out for 114 from 18 overs, coming up 21 runs short.

“Bit of a bowler-friendly wicket out there,” McAndrew said after his player-of-the-match performance.

“(They) had a couple of quality batters, Maxwell and (Marcus) Stoinis were looking dangerous.

“We held our nerve, spinners bowled beautifully.

“We knew it was defendable. Some of the wickets were pretty crucial with a small total.

“The powerplay was going to be a dangerous period, it gets harder after that.

“We knew if we got a couple of early wickets, we would be in it.

“Once we got Maxwell, that sort of went a long way.”

Despite the victory, the Thunder remain on the last line of betting to win the BBL title this year.

Big Bash League bookies have them at $4.50 in outright betting, behind the Hobart Hurricanes ($1.72) and Sydney Sixers ($3.75).

Up next, the Thunder play the Sixers on January 24 at the SCG, where they are $2.02 underdogs at Bet365.

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