The Sydney Thunder inflicted a second BBL11 defeat on the Perth Scorchers on Thursday night when wrapping up a six-wicket win at Metricon Stadium.
The Thunder are priced at 5/1 to win BBL11 and seem to have the sign over the Scorchers after beating them for the second time in the space of a week.
Rain-affected game
The clash was hit by an early rain delay and reduced to an 18-over affair with the Scorchers, who have dominated BBL11 so far, batting first.
However for once they struggled to get into the groove and were undone by Thunder paceman Gurinder Sandhu who took 4-22, which included the first hat-trick in the history of the franchise.
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Colin Munro (18 off 20 balls), Aaron Hardie (4), and Laurie Evans (20) were the batsmen to fall but Sandhu was completely unaware he had taken the hat-trick and only found out after the Scorchers innings was over.
Munro went in the 12th over before Sandhu returned to grab the other two in the 16th over and it slipped his mind.
Sandhu hat-trick confusion
"I had absolutely no idea, which is kind of a good thing because then maybe I would have tried too hard on that ball or changed up what I was doing," Sandhu told AAP.
"As I walked off, I chatted to Erin Holland from channel 7 and she said, 'Well done, the first Sydney Thunder player to get a hat-trick'.
"I actually thought in my mind that she stuffed up, but I was the one who had it wrong.
"I was surprised, because I had no idea. I've already had one this year, so I was like, 'there's no chance anybody can get two in a year, let alone in a career'.
"It's pretty cool. It's something when I finish playing I'll look back on and go, 'wow'."
The Scorchers made 9-133 and under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method the Thunder needed 135 for victory, which they got with an over to spare.
Needing 40 runs off the final four overs Sam Billings (19no off 11 balls) and Oliver Davies (19 off 10) got them home.
