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| Personnel | ||
|---|---|---|
| Captain |  | |
| Coach |  | |
| Team information | ||
| Colours | Lime Green Black | |
| Founded | 2011 | |
| Home ground | ANZ Stadium (2011-2014) Sydney Showground Stadium (2015-Present) | |
| Capacity | Approx. 21,500 [1] | |
| History | ||
| BBL wins | 1 (BBL05) | |
| Official website: | Sydney Thunder | |
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The Sydney Thunder are an Australian professional cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League. [2] [3] The team's home ground is Sydney Showground Stadium, known as Giants Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park. Their team uniform is lime green. Thunder won the fifth edition of Big Bash, as well as the inaugural Women's Big Bash League. [2] [3]
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a 20-metre (22-yard) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striking the ball bowled at the wicket with the bat, while the bowling and fielding side tries to prevent this and dismiss each player. Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, and by the fielding side catching the ball after it is hit by the bat, but before it hits the ground. When ten players have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. The game is adjudicated by two umpires, aided by a third umpire and match referee in international matches. They communicate with two off-field scorers who record the match's statistical information.
Twenty20 cricket, or (Twenty-20), and often abbreviated to T20, is a short form of cricket. At the professional level, it was originally introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition in England and Wales. In a Twenty20 game the two teams have a single innings each, which is restricted to a maximum of 20 overs. Together with first-class and List A cricket, Twenty20 is one of the three current forms of cricket recognised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as being at the highest international or domestic level. A typical Twenty20 game is completed in about three hours, with each innings lasting around 90 minutes and an official 10 minute break between the innings. This is much shorter than previously-existing forms of the game, and is closer to the timespan of other popular team sports. It was introduced to create a fast-paced form of the game which would be attractive to spectators at the ground and viewers on television.
The Big Bash League (BBL) is an Australian professional Twenty20 cricket league, which was established in 2011 by Cricket Australia. The Big Bash League replaced the previous competition, the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash, and features eight city-based franchises instead of the six state teams which had participated previously. The competition has been sponsored by fast food chicken outlet KFC since its inception. It is one of the two T20 cricket leagues, alongside the Indian Premier League, to feature amongst the Top 10 Most Attended Sport Leagues in the world.
