Cricket stunned by ‘crazy night’ as Adelaide Strikers set world record

Adelaide Strikers obliterated Sydney Thunder at the Sydney Showground on Friday night, bowling out the home side for an embarrassing 15 runs.

Yes, you read correctly. Thunder was all out for 15. It was U/10s stuff. It was unbelievable.

“Crazy night. Still can’t believe it,” tweeted West Indies great Ian Bishop. “What a bowling performance.”

Consider the numbers.

Henry Thornton took 5/3 off 17 balls. Wes Agar took 4/2 off 12 balls. Matthew Short took 1/5 and a catch of the summer.

The entire Thunder innings lasted 35 balls.

Rashid Khan didn’t bowl. Peter Siddle didn’t bowl.

There were five ducks. Wicketkeeper Henry Nielsen took five catches.

“I don’t have much to say about it, to be honest,” Thunder captain Jasan Sangha said. “It’s not like we went out to be crazy. Nine of 11 batsmen out caught behind … we nicked off too many times.

“I don’t want to dive into it. But end of the day it’s just not good enough for a professional team to be bowled out for that many runs.

“I don’t know. It wasn’t like guys were out there trying to throw their wicket away.”

They didn’t have to – Thornton and company were bowling hand grenades.

“We’re just a bunch of good blokes doing our best,” Thornton said. ”It was a bit surreal in the huddles. No-one could believe it was going on.”

At the halfway mark it had looked good for the home side after the Strikers, confronted by a fine bowling performance by Sydney Thunder, amassed 9/139.

And then the carnage began. Matthew Gilkes recorded his second duck in two games when he cut Short uppishly to point where Alex Hose took a fine diving catch.

Jason Sangha came in and Thornton had two for none when the captain edged to Nielsen. Strikers captain Peter Siddle brought in two slips.

Short took a one-handed blinder at first slip to dismiss Riley Roussow.

Dangerman Alex Hales was soon gone, edging Wes Agar. It was such that a Daniel Sams’ single was Bronx cheered by the small home crowd.

When Agar bowled Sams and Thornton had Ross the Thunder had lost five wickets for nine runs in the first 17 balls.

“It’s an absolute shambles here at the Showground,” Brett Lee declared in commentary. He didn’t know half of it.

Thornton got Hales caught behind the Thunder were 6/9 off 19 balls.

Chris Green defended Thornton‘s next ball, and the home crowd roared approval. Then they did it again. And again.

The lowest BBL score was the Melbourne Renegades’ 57 in 2015.

When Ollie Davies tucked a single through gully, the crowd roared like he’d hit a six.

Then Green was gone, off Agar, caught behind.

They were 7 for 10. Then 8 for 10!

When Thornton got rid of Ollie Davies, out slashing, Thunder were 9/14.

Out came Fazalhaq Farooqi. And back he went. His team all out for 15.

All this after the Thunder entered the change of innings with the upperhand.

On a chilly night at the Sydney Showground, in front of a crowd that appeared in the hundreds, the apparently ageless vegan Peter Siddle, 38, won the flip and elected to bat.

After a 10-minute delay caused by the late-finishing Stars-Hurricanes game at the MCG, impressive left-arm Afghan seamer Fazalhaq Farooqi opened the bowling and snared Thunder’s first wicket when Matthew Short mistimed a pull shot, the ball soaring to cover where Ollie Davies took the catch.

Jake Weatherald, out of form, mistimed a pull shot and spooned a catch to Sangha. And both Strikers openers were gone for 27 inside the first four-over power play.

After six overs Adelaide was going at less than a run a ball and lost three wickets.

Big-hitting marquee man Chris Lynn came in and immediately drew a monster shout for LBW that Sangha elected not to review. Lynn, who limped to six from 13 balls, barely got out of first gear for the first half of Adelaide‘s innings. Then Brendan Doggett came on – and Lynn decided: it is time. In 13 balls he smashed 30 runs.

At the other end Black caps all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme was following suit, smashing Chris Green over mid-wicket for six then two balls later repeating the dose over mid-on – both copybook cricket shots.

Yet just as it seemed the Thunder trundlers were under the pump, Lynn was caught by Matthew Gilkes from a top edge that came down with ice on it, while de Grandhomme was very sharply caught by Davies at mid-wicket.

In the end, it was more than enough.

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