Brisbane Heat defeated Sydney Thunder at the Gabba by a score of 15 runs, extending their lead atop the points table. They have won four games in the BBL 2023–24, and they have not yet lost any this year.
After choosing to bat first, Heat lost Colin Munro to Gurinder Sandhu in the opening over. However, Josh Brown (39 off 29) and Nathan McSweeney (73 off 52) added 106 vital runs for the second wicket, making them Player of the Match. At the midway point, the hosts were down 90/1, but Daniel Sams’ five-wicket haul prevented that from happening, and Thunder used that achievement to equal the score in the second half of that innings.
Before Sams went on a rampage in his final over, taking the remaining four wickets with six balls, Brown was his first victim. With two balls remaining, Zaman Khan claimed Michael Neser’s wicket to conclude the innings.
Chasing 173, which seemed like a respectable total at first glance, Cameron Bancroft (46 off 39) and Alex Hales (28 off 22) added 58 runs for the opening wicket to put Thunder in a strong position. After Hales left, Bancroft and Jason Sangha put on 34 runs, but after Mitchell Swepson broke this partnership, the wickets continued to fall, stealing Thunder’s momentum.
After first dismissing Bancroft, Xavier Bartlett (final figures: 3 for 29) came back to claim the wickets of Chris Green and Sandhu. Matthew Kuhnemann and Spencer Johnson each took two wickets as Thunder was restricted to 157/9 in their 20 overs.