Team: Sydney Sixers
City: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Ground: Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG)
Number of Titles: 3
Who Are the Sydney Sixers?
The Sydney Sixers are one of the most successful teams in the history of the Big Bash. They were the tournaments inaugural winners back in 2011 and have followed this up with two more championship.
The Sixers are one of two Sydney based BBL sides. Their magenta-coloured kit is hard to miss and play their home matches at the Sydney Cricket Ground (also known as the “SCG”), which has a capacity of approximately 48,600. The team is captained by veteran Moises Henriques and coached by Greg Shipperd.
Over the years, there has been a strong contingent of Englishmen as the Sixers overseas players, including batsmen like Michael Lumb, Jason Roy, James Vince, and Sam Billings and also the all-round abilities of Tom Curran. Some of the Sixers most iconic home-based Australian players include Moises Henriques, Josh Philippe, Daniel Hughes, Sean Abbott, Ben Dwarshuis, and Steve O’Keefe.
The Sixers have developed two main rivals over the years. Firstly, with the Perth Scorchers as the two are the most successful team in BBL history and have faced each other in an incredible five finals. The Sixers have managed to win two of those five games.
Secondly, it is the obvious geographical rival that the Sixers have with other Sydney based side, the Sydney Thunder. The early years of the rivalry were dominated by the Sixers, going unbeaten for the first four years. But their seven-game winning streak was finally ended. Since then, the rivalry has been much more competitive with neither team being able to gain more than a two-game winning streak over the other. The Sixers are overall still dominant winning 12 of the 19 games between the two sides.
The BBL History of Sydney Sixers
It was a dream start for the Sixers in the BBL as they went on to win the first ever Big Bash tournament. As the Sixers went on to beat the Perth Scorchers by seven wickets. The following year was disappointing for the Sixers as they failed to qualify for the semi-finals and finished seventh in the league. However, this was offset by the franchises title win of the now defunct Champions League Twenty20 tournament – the only BBL team to every do this.
The Sixers enjoyed more successful seasons in BBL03, BBL04, BBL06 but were unable to convert this success into championship wins, losing in the semi-final in BBL03, and then the final in BBL04 and BBL05. On all three occasions the Sixers were beaten by the Perth Scorchers. Most memorably was the BBL04 final as the Perth Scorchers won on the final ball in the match in Brett Lee’s final game of his career.
Unsuccessful years followed in BBL07 and BBL08, but it was turned around in BBL09 and BBL10 as the Sixers went on to win back-to-back championships. The more satisfying win came in BBL10 as the Sixer took their revenge of the Perth Scorchers, winning the final by 27 runs. A third championship title beckoned in BBL11, but it was not to be as this time it was the Scorchers who were victorious in the final.
Who Holds the Sydney Sixers Records?
The Sydney Sixers have the highest wicket taker in BBL history, that being, Sean Abbott. For the Sixers Abbott has taken 115 wickets in 80 matches including the franchises best bowling figures in an innings, taking 5 wickets for 16 runs against the Adelaide Strikers in 2016. He has been supported by other Sixers stalwarts, left-arm seamer, Ben Dwarshius who has taken 102 wickets (5th most in BBL history) and left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe with 80 wickets.
The Sixers have had a number of successful batsmen over the years. Current captain Moises Henriques is the standout as the franchises top run scorer with 2,426 runs in 102 innings. Daniel Hughes, Jordan Silk, and Josh Philippe have also scored more than 1,600 runs each for the team. Rather incredibly is the fact that no Sixers batsmen has scored a hundred for the team. Josh Philippe’s 99 not out is the franchises highest score.
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