On Monday, 25th match of the ongoing Big Bash League season was played between Brisbane Heat and Sydney Thunders. Heat skipper Chris Lynn won the toss and elected to bat first. But the match saw a Delay as rain spoiled the first two hours of play. Officials reduced the match to an 8-over per side game.
Chris Lynn promoted himself to the opening position. Lynn and Tom Banton’s duo turned out to be deadly. Both started the fireworks from the first ball of the match. Banton faced the first ball of the innings and sent it to the stands. Both Banton and Lynn jointly scored 18 runs off the first over.
Tom Banton 5 Sixes In 5 Balls
In the 4th over the innings, English batsman Tom Banton showcased his power hitting skills. Off-spinner Arjun Nair bowled this over and he stopped Banton from scoring any run off the first ball. But in the next 5 balls, Tom Banton smashed 5 sixes in a row. With 5th six, he also completed his fifty in just 16 balls, making this the second-fastest fifty in Big Bash League history after Chris Gayle’s 12-ball fifty for Melbourne Renegades in BBL 2016.
This is just extraordinary.
Tom Banton launches five consecutive sixes! #BBL09 pic.twitter.com/STYOFVvchy
— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 6, 2020
Tom Banton ended his innings scoring 59 off 19 balls while Chris Lynn departed scoring 31 off 13 balls. Banton and Lynn had posted 90 runs in just 5 overs. After Brisbane Heat lost both openers’ wickets, their run-rate decreased. In rest 3 overs Heat could score only 19 runs and set a target of 110 runs for Sydney Thunder. But, after 2.1 overs of Thunder’s innings, rain once again interrupted the play. This time the balls were reduced to 17 and 55 runs were required. In the end, Brisbane won the match by 16 runs.
Meanwhile, watching Tom Banton in such a great form is a good sight for IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders. KKR had bought the 21-year old batsman for 1 crore in IPL 2020 auction. As the franchise has released Chris Lynn from the squad, Banton is a good option to replace Lynn at the opening slot.
