By Jasper Bruce
The Sydney Sixers are getting plenty of bang for their buck with Steve Smith after he registered the highest score of his professional Twenty20 career as they smashed a Sydney Thunder side containing Test teammate David Warner by 125 runs in their rain-affected BBL clash.
Smith’s unbeaten 125 at the SCG on Saturday night marked just the second time a Sixer had posted a century in the Big Bash League. Smith had become the first to do so earlier this week.
His latest effort outdid the 101 runs he scored against the Adelaide Strikers and was the fifth-highest individual innings in the tournament’s history.
Smith belted a remarkable nine sixes, the biggest of which came in the 18th over and flew into the second level of the SCG grandstand. In 238 games of T20 cricket, Smith had posted a century once prior to this week but is now the second man in BBL history to score a century in back-to-back innings.
Steve Smith launches at the SCG.Credit:Getty
He finishes the match with a batting average of 131 from his three BBL innings this summer, vindicating Cricket Australia’s decision to fork out extra money to lure him back to the tournament.
Smith made his latest ton with one less over to play than usual after rain at the SCG cut the fixture to 19 overs apiece.
On his return from a calf injury, Gurinder Sandhu dismissed Josh Philippe (10) and Kurtis Patterson (2) in one over to stifle the Sixers, who slumped to 2-32 and did not hit a boundary for 34 consecutive balls. The game threatened to dissolve into a classic SCG grind before Smith partnered with captain Moises Henriques to wrest back the momentum. Daniel Sams proved Smith’s favourite target as he took advantage of the short SCG boundaries.
Smith smacked the Australian all-rounder for six on his first delivery and then revitalised the Sixers’ innings by hitting Sams for consecutive boundaries in the 10th over.
By the end of the innings, five of Smith’s 14 boundaries had come from Sams’ bowling, including four of his nine sixes.
Steve Smith is congratulated by Moises Henriques after notching his century.Credit:Getty
Called into the side to replace the rested Nathan McAndrew, youngster Joel Davies also copped a battering from Smith, who twice belted him down the ground for six.
Conditions were difficult for fielders, who slipped and slid around the rain-soaked pitch; Warner could not get to the ball quickly enough to catch Smith out at midwicket in the 12th over and the innings rolled on.
Henriques (45) played second fiddle in the 155-run partnership as Smith brought his century up from 56 balls in the 17th over and earned a standing ovation from the crowd. The pair batted the innings out as the Sixers posted 2-187.
Warner watched his opening partner Matthew Gilkes (one), Blake Nikitaras (eight), Oliver Davies (two) and Alex Ross (six) go cheaply before he fell to Steve O’Keefe for 16 off 23 balls in an innings that never got going.
The same can be said for the entire batting line-up with Joel Davies (10) the only other batter to make double figures as they slumped from 5-38 to be all out for just 62.
O’Keefe, who described Smith’s innings as the best he’s seen in the BBL, claimed 4-10 from three miserly overs while Sean Abbott (3-11) and Ben Dwarshuis (2-14) also had a field day as the Sixers ripped through their cross-town rivals.
