CANES LEFT THUNDER STRUCK

Hurricane Nathan Ellis displayed his athleticism against the Sydney Thunder at Perth’s Optus Stadium yesterday, but the entire team took a tumble with him, falling by 39 runs to the Sydneysiders.

THE Sydney Thunder moved to the top of the BBL table after a dominant bowling performance from their trio of spinners at Optus Stadium on Thursday night.

One of them, 19-year-old Tanveer Sangha, continued to shine bright under pressure.

Sangha moved to the top of the tournament’s wickettakers list after another impressive performance. He returned figures of 2-29 from his four overs.

Sangha, Arjun Nair and Chris Green took five wickets between them to limit the Hobart Hurricanes to just 8-128 in their chase of 168 for victory.

That score was the Hurricanes’ lowest of this campaign and the 39-run loss was their second consecutive defeat. They did pick up one bonus point, chasing down the 74 needed from 10 overs for the loss of the both openers — Ben McDermott (22) and D’Arcy Short (19).

Usman Khawaja set the tone for the Thunder innings, top-scoring for the match with 49 runs from just 33 balls.

Alex Ross (44) and Ben Cutting (31) looked to have left the Sydneysiders short though at the end, scoring just 0-56 from their last five overs, which included their two-over power surge.

The Hurricanes would have backed themselves in to chase down the 168 needed to victory — which would have taken them to the top of the table.

But the 57-run partnership between Ross and Cutting proved a match-winning one.

The chase became more difficult when man-of-thematch Nathan McAndrew removed both Hobart openers in his second over.

Both Short and McDermott were looking dangerous. The big hitting Hurricanes pair had hit four boundaries and cleared it twice in the first five overs before McAndrew struck.

Sangha then took the wickets of Hobart captain Peter Handscomb (30) and Colin Ingram (12) just as the pair looked to have settled into the chase.

His two wickets took his tournament total to 15, one ahead of Adelaide Strikers Wes Agar.

Khawaja and Alex Hales once again got the Thunder off to a solid start.

They were 0-48 from the first four-overs; the third highest power play score in BBL10.

The Thunder now have the three best power play scores this campaign, having hit 52 and 50 in their two games against the Melbourne Renegades.

The Hurricanes’ preparation was affected by the late withdrawal of their leading wicket-taker Riley Meredith.

A rib injury is believed to have forced the right-arm quick from the game, replaced by Nick Winter.

Debutant Winter was given the new ball and took some stick from Alex Hales in the power play, before finishing with figures of 0-27 from three overs.

Short put the breaks on the Thunder though, taking a three-wicket haul for the second time this tournament.

The spinner took a wicket in each of his first three overs

— dismissing Hales (21), Callum Ferguson (1) and Khawaja.

The performance of Short allowed for the Thunder to swap out Johan Botha for X factor Mac Wright at the half-way mark of the innings.