‘Embarrassing’ Sydney Thunder slump to historic low

But the day belonged to Henry Thornton, who on his 26th birthday ripped through the Thunder to take 5-3 from just 17 balls.

The Thunder’s 15 takes the mantle as lowest ever T20 score from the Turkish national side, who were rolled for 21 by the Czech Republic in 2019.

The Thunder are coached by Trevor Bayliss – who just last month coached England to victory in the T20 World Cup.

The Thunders’ woeful performance left commentators and pundits alike in total disbelief.

“Take a screencap of that – because you’ll never, ever see this again,” Fox Cricket commentator Dan Ginnane said after the ninth wicket fell.

As Fazalhaq Farooqi walked to the crease with the score at 14, the Thunder needed to make another 43 just to avoid the embarrassment of having the lowest Big Bash score in history, set by the Renegades in 2015.

“I’ve never seen a game of cricket like this ever,” Brett Lee said in commentary for Fox Cricket.

The game would end one ball after that statement, as Thornton took his fifth wicket – and the tenth of the innings.

“I don’t know what they’re going to say in the change rooms, but that’s very, very embarrassing for the Sydney Thunder – they’ve been absolutely drilled,” Lee said.

“The bowling from the Strikers was spot on.”

His old teammate Brad Haddin agreed.

“There was some poor dismissals in there, but what it was, it was just quality fast bowling – it was intimidating, they found the edges, and were backed up by the fielding,” he said.

It didn’t start badly for the Thunder. After losing the toss and being thrown the ball, they restricted the Strikers to just 139 from their 20 overs.

Farooqi was the pick of the bowlers with 3-20 from his four overs, with Gurinder Sandhu, Daniel Sams and Doggett all picking up two each.

But that was as good as it got.

They lost Matt Gilkes in the first over. Rilee Rossouw and Sangha then fell in the second.

In the third over, Hales and Sams were dismissed, before Alex Ross followed in the fourth.

Chris Green and Sandhu departed in the fifth, before Ollie Davies and Doggett collapsed in the sixth to end a historic night. It was also the shortest completed innings – where a team had been bowled out – in T20 history.

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