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Sport
Jason Phelan

Oliver Davies steers Thunder to BBL win

Oliver Davies plays another fine shot in his match-winning contribution for the Sydney Thunder. (Gary Day/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

A well-crafted half-century by Oliver Davies has steered the Sydney Thunder to an impressive six-wicket BBL win against the Perth Scorchers at Optus Stadium.

The Thunder restricted the home side to 9-142 from their 20 overs, then chased down the target (4-143) with three overs to spare on Wednesday night.

Davies made 57 from 47 balls, including four fours and two sixes, leaving his side to get 29 from 31 balls when he holed out to mid-off.

Alex Ross finished the job, blasting an unbeaten 41 off 18 balls, including three fours and three sixes.

To make matters worse for the home side, star seamer Jhye Richardson (2-36 from 3.4 overs) was unable to finish his spell, leaving the ground injured with two balls remaining in his fourth over.

Faf du Plessis will play his final BBL match for the Perth Scorchers as they face Sydney Thunder. (Gary Day/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

The result drew the Thunder level with the top-of-the-table Scorchers with five wins and snapped Perth's run of eight wins at Optus Stadium.

The Thunder were in trouble at 2-10 after two overs, with Richardson on a hat-trick after he dismissed international stars Alex Hales and Rilee Rossouw for no score.

But Davies joined Matthew Gilkes (32) at the crease, with the pair putting on a crucial 67-run partnership from 53 balls.

The Scorchers were 4-47 after 10 overs, but the visitors threw off their early struggles to move to 2-75 at the same point of their innings, needing 68 runs from the remaining 60 deliveries.

Earlier, Ashton Turner was the only Perth batter to trouble the Thunder bowlers, with the skipper belting 61 from 37 balls.

Captain Ashton Turner en route to a gutsy 61 that rescued the Scorchers against the Thunder. (Gary Day/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

The Scorchers were in trouble early after winning the bat flip, the home side reeling at 2-10 after the first four power play overs, with their first boundary coming off the fourth ball of the fifth over.

In his final appearance of the tournament, South African star Faf du Plessis (1) went cheaply, caught at third man after he top-edged a ramp shot.

It continued a lean run at Optus Stadium for the former Test skipper, who made scores of 14, 6, 3 and 1 in front of home fans to finish with a total of 163 runs, including a high score of 68, from his seven innings.

Oliver Davies' younger brother Joel also made his BBL debut and was never far from the action, catching Cameron Bancroft (2) and Nick Hobson (16) and firing searing balls in from the deep that saw Adam Lyth (11) and Matt Kelly (17) run out.

Chris Green (1-15 from four overs) was economical, while Nathan McAndrew (3-29 from four) removed danger man Turner as he accelerated toward the back end of the innings.

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