BBL 2019-20, Match 17: Adelaide Strikers vs Sydney Thunder – End of Strikers' NYE streak, Rashid Khan's cameo, Weatherald's milestone and more stats

Adelaide Strikers suffered their first defeat of the BBL 2019-20 as they went down by three runs against the Sydney Thunder in the last game of 2019. The fifties from Usman Khawaja (63) and Callum Ferguson (73) helped the Thunder to finish on 168/5 in their 20 overs.

No player in Strikers’ top-order barring Jake Weatherald (52) scored big as they were reduced to 118/7 by 16th over. However, Rashid Khan’s cameo of 40 from 18 balls helped the Strikers stay in the hunt. He was run out on the penultimate delivery of the game and the Strikers fell short of the target.

All the statistical highlights from the first defeat of the season for the Adelaide Strikers:

End of Strikers’ NYE streak:

6-1 – The 3-run loss against the Sydney Thunder is their first defeat in the BBL matches played on the New Year’s Eve. The Sixers won each of the six matches they played on the New Year’s Eve until 2018-19.

A record fifty for Khawaja and Weatherald:

10 – Both Usman Khawaja (2 100s & 8 50s) and Jake Weatherald (1 100 & 9 50s) registered their 10th fifty-plus score in the Big Bash League. Both the players became the first to do so in the BBL for Thunder and Strikers respectively.

Weatherald @ 1000:

1032 – Jake Weatherald became only the 2nd player to aggregate 1000 BBL runs for the Adelaide Strikers. Travis Head was the first to do so having scored 1051 runs till date. Weatherald completed 1000 T20 runs in the T20 format during this match and also became the 30th player to aggregate 1000 BBL runs.

Nearly Rashid’s best with the bat:

40 – Rashid Khan’s 40-run knock was his 2nd highest score in Twenty20 cricket. Rashid has 198 T20s till date and his inning against the Thunder was his 100th in this format. His highest score was 56* off 27 balls during APL 2018 while leading Kabul Zwanan. Even that knock went in vain as Balkh Legends chased down the target of 177 to win it by 7 wickets.

40 – The 40 runs by Rashid is now the 3rd highest score in the BBL while batting at No.8. Cameron Boyce scored an unbeaten 51 for the Renegades also against Thunder in the last edition while Tim Bresnan scored 43 for the Perth Scorchers against the Hobart Hurricanes in the 2017-18 season.

Kane Richardson scored 45 runs for the Strikers against Scorchers in the 2016-17 season while batting at No.9; the only other 40+ score in the BBL at No.8 or lower position.

A rare low score for Carey:

19 – Alex Carey departed for just 19 runs in this game after scoring 40+ runs in all the first four matches of this season – 45, 55, 45 and 41. Only Usman Khawaja and Marcus Stoinis had five consecutive 40+ scores in the Big Bash League.