Englishman Alex Hales continued his blistering form for the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League (BBL) as he brought up his maiden century for the men in lime green and black. Hales looked in the modd today as he took on the Sixers bowlers from the outset.
After departure of Usman Khawaja, skipper Callum Ferguson and Hales kept the momentum of the innings and were able to bat at 10 per over easily. Hales amassed his 10th half-century in the BBL off just 26 balls as the duo kept smashing the Sixers bowlers around.
Ferguson got out after a quickfire 42 but Hales was unperturbed as he kept finding great partners. After Ferguson got out, Sam Billings played a decent hand too as the duo stitched a 53-run partnership in just 32 balls.
Hales, was looking in sublime touch as irrespective of the kind of bowlers, Hales was looking to take on every one of them. With 9 fours and 8 sixes, Hales reached to his first three figure mark in the BBL, stamping his authority as one of the best openers for the Sydney Thunder after bringing up 1000 runs for the franchise earlier in the season.
Hales got out for 110 (56) but the Thunder batsmen didn't let run rate drop as Ben Cutting and Nathan McAndrew took over. Cutting played a handy cameo of 33*(14) striking at 235 as he took Thunder's score beyond 230.
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The Thunder ended up with a score of 232/5, which was the highest ever team total in the history of the league, leapfrogging Hobart Hurricanes's 223 in the 2017-18 edition.
By the virtue of his 110, Alex Hales also rose to the top of leading run-scorers list in this edition of the BBL.
