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Sangha stars as Sydney strikes out Adelaide

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Precocious Jason Sangha’s mastery with the bat and golden arm with the ball propelled the COVID-ravaged Sydney Thunder to a memorable 22-run BBL win over the Adelaide Strikers on New Year’s Eve.

The 22-year-old Newcastle product crunched six sixes in his career-best unbeaten 91, underpinning the Thunder’s 3-187 at Adelaide Oval, before snaring his maiden BBL wicket with his under-utilised wrist spin as the Strikers fell short in reply with 7-165.

In a chaotic build-up, four members of the Thunder squad tested positive for COVID-19, with regulars Alex Ross, Alex Hales and Tanveer Sangha all forced to sit out.

The match was only approved by South Australia Health earlier on Friday afternoon to go ahead under strict biosecurity measures, which included Thunder players needing to remain separate from each other and the Strikers’ team.

The undermanned visitors were reduced to just four specialist batters, but it didn’t matter with Sangha in sublime touch, well supported by makeshift opener Ben Cutting (37) and talented youngster Oliver Davies (26no).

The Novocastrian was circumspect early before thumping 78 off his last 33 balls, combining with good friend Davies to add 79 off the final five overs and 119 off the last nine.

“I have to credit Ollie,” the Wallsend junior said.

“Me and him have been playing mates for a long time and been talking about getting the chance to bat together out in the middle.

“I used up a lot of balls early in the innings.

“When he came in, he gave me a nice little smile and said ‘how good is this, we can finally bat together’.

“That calmed me down and made me think ‘you know what, let’s just enjoy this moment together’.

“We’d been waiting for this moment for a while.”

The Strikers lost opener Matt Short for 16 but were well in the game at the halfway stage of their chase before set pair Matt Renshaw (38) and Jake Weatherald (31) holed out in quick succession, the home side’s decision to take an early power surge backfiring.

Sangha was introduced in the 13th over and continued his golden evening, sending Tom Kelly (1) packing with his third ball.

Veteran finisher Jonathan Wells impressed with a quickfire 46 off 26 deliveries but his salvo was far too late considering the damage inflicted with the ball by Thunder spearheads Daniel Sams (4-33) and Saqib Mahmood (2-35).

“Samsy has been a class bowler for a while now,” Sangha said.

“He’s the leader of this bowling attack.

“Another Randy Pete (Randwick Petersham) member … me and Samsy go way back.

“I think he’s been pretty unlucky in a couple of games so it was nice seeing him getting the reward he deserves.”

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