Sydney Thunder

Last updated

Sydney Thunder
Sydney Thunder logo.svg
Personnel
Captain Jason Sangha
Chris Green (Acting)
Coach Trevor Bayliss
Team information
Colours  Lime Green
Founded2011
Home ground Sydney Showground Stadium
CapacityApprox. 21,500 [1]
History
BBL  wins1: BBL05
Official website Sydney Thunder
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T20 kit

The Sydney Thunder is an Australian franchise professional cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League. [2] [3] Along with the Sydney Sixers, the Thunder is the successor of the New South Wales Blues which played in the now-defunct KFC Twenty20 Big Bash. The team's home ground is Sydney Showground Stadium.

Contents

History

Along with the Sydney Sixers, the Sydney Thunder is the successor of the New South Wales Blues which played in the now-defunct KFC Twenty20 Big Bash. The NSW Cricket board unanimously decided on lime green as the team's colour, though other colours were considered, and rejected as being too close to other Sydney sports teams. [2] Cricket Australia did not allow Cricket NSW to use the sky blue colour traditionally associated with New South Wales sports teams.

The team made its debut in the 2011-12 Big Bash League season – the inaugural season of the Big Bash League. The team performed poorly in its first few years in the competition, finishing last in each of its first three seasons and second last in its fourth season.

From 2011 to 2014, the Thunder's home ground was Stadium Australia in Sydney Olympic Park. [4] The team played its final two games of the 2014-15 Big Bash League season at Sydney Showground Stadium after it was unable to use Stadium Australia due to the 2015 AFC Asian Cup association football tournament. In June 2015, the Thunder announced the team would leave Stadium Australia and play all home games at Sydney Showground Stadium until the 2024–25 BBL season. [1]

The 2015–16 Big Bash League season marked the first year in which the Thunder finished in the top half of the table, finishing 4th overall. Having won the first three games of the season and boasting a squad including Michael Hussey, Shane Watson, Usman Khawaja and Jacques Kallis, the Thunder soon became the favourites to win the tournament. However, the Thunder lost their following four games and were in danger of missing the finals. In their final game of the 2015–16 Big Bash League season, the Thunder defeated the Sixers for only the second time in their history to book a finals berth. The Thunder faced the Adelaide Strikers at Adelaide Oval in the first semi final, winning convincingly. The Thunder then faced the Stars in the Finals the Melbourne Stars. The final was played at Melbourne Cricket Ground on 24 January 2016 and resulted in the Thunder defeating the Melbourne Stars by 3 wickets. Michael Hussey announced his retirement from domestic cricket during BBL05, at the conclusion of the tournament he was announced the club's Director of Cricket, responsible for managing recruitment, contracts, facilities and scouting for the BBL squad. The Thunder were the most watched sports team in Australia during 2015-16 with an average TV audience of 1.2m.

Shane Watson was elected to captain the side in 2016. [5] [6] Watson captained the Thunder for three seasons, failing to qualify for the finals in each of them.

In 2019, Callum Ferguson was named as the new Thunder captain, subsequently qualifying for the finals during his two seasons in charge. Chris Green and Jason Sangha shared the captaincy role for the COVID-19 affected 2021-22 season as the Thunder were knocked out in their first finals game after finishing 3rd on the ladder.

In a league game on 16 December 2022 against the Adelaide Strikers, the Thunder were dismissed for 15 in 5.5 overs, breaking the record for both the shortest completed innings and the lowest score in one in all men's professional T20 matches. [7]

Role in the community

The MoneyGram Thunder Nation Cup gives cricket players from seven cultural backgrounds the chance to experience the fun and excitement of Twenty20 cricket, whilst representing their community. The winning team from each community cricket round will represent their country in the MoneyGram Thunder Nation Cup Semi Finals, with the two winners of the semi-finals playing off in a Grand Final prior to a Sydney Thunder match at Spotless Stadium.

The Thunder Bus travels around schools and cricket club in Sydney and Regional NSW, it has an interactive quiz and inflatable nets. The Thunder Bus directly engaged with 100,000 children aged between 5- 12 during this period and was seen by over 1 Million people.

Personnel

Sydney Thunder, like every other team, had a salary cap of $1 million for the first season of the Big Bash League, but in that season they spent almost half of the salary cap on the explosive opening combination of Chris Gayle and David Warner. Gayle was pursued by Perth Scorchers but he rejected an offer of $250,000 to stay with the New South Wales team. [8] [9]

Current squad

No.NameNationalityDate of birth (age)Batting styleBowling styleNotes
Batters
5Sam KonstasFlag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 2 October 2005 (age 18)Right-handedRight arm leg spin
6 Alex Hales Flag of England.svg  England 5 January 1989 (age 35)Right-handedRight-arm medium Overseas draft pick
9 Ollie Davies Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 15 October 2000 (age 23)Right-handedRight-arm off break
23 Jason Sangha Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 8 September 1999 (age 24)Right-handedRight arm leg spin
31 David Warner Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 27 October 1986 (age 37)Left-handedRight arm leg break Cricket Australia contract
32 Tom Kohler-Cadmore Flag of England.svg  England 19 August 1994 (age 29)Right-handedRight arm off break Overseas replacement
47 Blake Nikitaras Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 29 April 2000 (age 23)Left-handed
50 Alex Ross Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 17 April 1992 (age 31)Right-handedRight-arm off-break
All-rounders
12 Zaman Khan Flag of Pakistan.svg  Pakistan 10 September 2001 (age 22)Right-handedRight-arm fast medium Overseas draft pick
93 Chris Green Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 1 October 1993 (age 30)Right-handedRight-arm off break
95 Daniel Sams Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 27 October 1992 (age 31)Right-handedLeft-arm fast medium
Wicket-keepers
1 Cameron Bancroft Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 19 November 1992 (age 31)Right-handedRight-arm off break
22 Matthew Gilkes Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 21 August 1999 (age 24)Left-handedLeft-arm medium
Pace Bowlers
7 Liam Hatcher Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 17 September 1996 (age 27)Right-handedRight arm medium fast
19 Will Salzmann Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 19 November 2003 (age 20)Right-handedRight arm fast medium
28 Gurinder Sandhu Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 14 June 1993 (age 30)Right-handedRight arm fast medium
44 Nathan McAndrew Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 14 July 1993 (age 30)Right-handedRight-arm medium fast
59Liam DoddrellFlag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 27 September 2002 (age 21)Right-handedRight arm fast medium
Spin bowlers
17 Tanveer Sangha Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 26 November 2001 (age 22)Right-handedRight arm leg spin

Year-by-year record

SeasonLeague positionFinal position
2011–12 8thDNQ
2012–13 8thDNQ
2013–14 8thDNQ
2014–15 7thDNQ
2015–16 4thChampions
2016–17 8thDNQ
2017–18 6thDNQ
2018–19 6thDNQ
2019–20 5th3rd
2020–21 3rd4th
2021–22 3rd4th
2022–23 4th5th

Honours

Sydney Smash

When the league began in 2011, Cricket Australia decided they would place two teams in Sydney. With the core group of players for both sides coming from the New South Wales cricket team, this rivalry automatically becomes widely anticipated in the city.[ citation needed ] In the first four seasons of the league the Thunder lost all seven Sydney derby games to the Sydney Sixers.

List of Sydney Smash Matches

DateWinnerMarginVenueAttendance Player of the match
8 January 2012Sixers17 Runs (D/L) [10] ANZ Stadium 31,262 Mitchell Starc
8 December 2012Sixers7 wickets [11] SCG 15,279 Brad Haddin
30 December 2012Sixers4 wickets [12] ANZ Stadium 20,986 Daniel Hughes
21 December 2013Sixers6 wickets [13] SCG 18,180 Nic Maddinson
25 January 2014Sixers8 wickets [14] ANZ Stadium 25,726 Nathan Lyon
27 December 2014Sixers16 runs [15] ANZ Stadium 32,823 Aiden Blizzard
22 January 2015Sixers4 wickets [16] SCG 36,487 Jordan Silk
17 December 2015Thunder36 runs [17] Spotless Stadium 18,287 Michael Hussey
16 January 2016Thunder46 runs [18] SCG 38,456 Shane Watson
20 December 2016Sixers9 wickets [19] Spotless Stadium 21,798 Moises Henriques
14 January 2017Thunder8 wickets [20] SCG 39,756 Fawad Ahmed
19 December 2017Thunder5 wickets [21] Spotless Stadium 21,589 Shane Watson
13 January 2018Sixers8 wickets [22] SCG 36,458 Chris Green
24 December 2018Thunder21 runs [23] Spotless Stadium 10,508 Jos Buttler
2 February 2019Sixers9 wickets [24] (D/L) SCG 34,385 Sean Abbott
28 December 2019SixersSuper Over [25] SCG 35,296 Tom Curran
18 January 2020Thunder4 runs [26] (D/L) Giants Stadium 15,476 Chris Morris
13 January 2021Sixers5 wickets [27] (D/L) Manuka Oval Steve O'Keefe
21 January 2021Thunder46 runs [28] Adelaide Oval Alex Hales
26 December 2021Sixers30 runs [29] (D/L) Sydney Showground Stadium Dan Christian
15 January 2022Sixers60 runs [30] Sydney Cricket Ground Steve O'Keefe
8 January 2023Sixers7 wickets Sydney Showground Stadium Sean Abbott
21 January 2023Sixers125 runs Sydney Cricket Ground Steve Smith

Captains

[31] NameYears captainCaptainedWonLostTied [*] NR% [**]
1 David Warner 201111000100.00%
2 Daniel Smith 2011–20126150016.66%
3 Chris Rogers 2012606000%
4 Chris Gayle 2013202000%
5 Michael Hussey 2013–2016239140039.13%
6 Chris Hartley 2015201010%
7 Shane Watson 2016–20193113170143.33%
8 Ben Rohrer 2016202000%
9 Callum Ferguson 2019–20213216141153.22%
10 Usman Khawaja 2021–20222110050.00%
11 Chris Green 2021–2413110054.16%
12 Jason Sangha 2021-4220050.00%

^* Includes matches determined by a Super Over {{note|%|**|Ties counted as half a wi

See also

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References

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  5. WATSON REPLACES FUSSEY AS THUNDER CAPTAIN
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