Sydney Thunder have won the 5th edition of KFC Big Bash League by defeating Melbourne Stars in the final match played at Melbourne Cricket Ground. Thunder chased 182 runs target with 3 balls remaining in the innings. Usman Khawaja became hero once again for Sydney Thunder who smashed 70 runs in 40 balls to lead his team towards championship.
Sydney Thunder beat Melbourne Stars to win BBL|05
This is the first occasion when Sydney Thunder and Melbourne Stars were playing in Big Bash league final. Both teams qualified to the final by defeating top teams like Adelaide Strikers and regaining champions Perth Scorchers in their respective semi-finals.
In the crucial BBL|05 final, Sydney Thunder won toss and chose to field first. Sacked English player Kevin Pietersen scored brilliant 74 runs in 39 balls to guide Stars towards big total. He hit 4 fours and 5 sixes. Towards the end of innings, some clean hitting from Zampa and Gulbis helped team to put 176 runs on the scoreboard.
Kevin Pietersen made 74 runs in BBL-05 final
Shane Watson and Chris Green took 2-2 wickets each in Melbourne Stars inning.
The target of 182 wasn’t too big when your star batsman is in tremendous form and the same thing happened with Sydney Thunder as their opener Usman Khawaja played a terrific match winning inning to lead team towards the target.
Former South Africa all-rounder Jacques Kallis and Khawaja gave solid start to Thunder in the run chase. Kallis was quite slow and was removed by Zampa in the 10th over. Before this both batsmen added 86 runs for the first wicket. Just after this, Sydney Thunder batting got slightly collapsed and the target was looking far away from them.
Usman Khawaja scored 72 runs in BBL-05 final
But towards the end of innings in the last over, Ben Rohrer hit the winning six for Sydney Thunder. Usman Khawaja was awarded man of the match whereas Brisbane Beat captain Chris Lynn was named Player of the series.
