English batsman Alex Hales is starting to hit form at just the right time after helping the Sydney Thunder to a nine-wicket win over the Hobart Hurricanes.
The Thunder are flying at the moment after winning six games on the bounce and are priced at 8/13 to go on and reach the BBL11 final.
Hales stars again
The Hurricanes set the Thunder a target of 140 runs to win Monday's clash at the MCG and with Hales in top form they got there with 16 balls to spare.
Hales now has back-to-back half centuries in BBL11 and on this occasion he smashed an unbeaten 80 runs from 56 balls and shared a 106-run partnership with Jason Sangha.
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The 33-year-old took a little while to get going but when he did, he blew the Canes away with his last 30 runs coming off just 12 deliveries.
"I got there eventually. The first 20 or 30 balls were hard work, I thought they bowled really well. It was quite a difficult pitch to get your timing," he told Fox Cricket.
"We just tried to take it as deep as we could and cash-in in the surge, and fortunately we did that."
Sky-high confidence
Earlier the Thunder quicks did their part to set up the win with Nathan McAndrew (2-31) and Gurinder Sandhu (2-32) restricting the Hurricanes to 6-139.
And Hales believes they have the squad to go all the way.
"We're really confident as a squad. I feel like we're improving game by game," Hales added. "The bowlers have been outstanding for the last six wins. It's been a real good team effort so far and every batter seems to be in form as well, which is a great space to be in as a team."
