Sydney Thunder sets up Sydney Smash in Challenger

Sydney Thunder beat the Melbourne Stars by 21 runs in the Knockout at the Engie Stadium, setting up the third Sydney Smash of BBL14 in the Challenger at the SCG. Nathan McAndrew picked up career-best figures of 5 for 16 while Thunder's troika of spinners – Tanveer Sangha, Tom Andrews and Chris Green – spun a web around the Stars' batters conceding 67 runs for five wickets on a difficult pitch to bat on.

The Stars began with the wicket of David Warner for a duck, but Matthew Gilkes countered from the other end in the PowerPlay before a brief interruption due to lightning reduced the game to 19 overs a side. Gilkes was spilled by Tom Curran off his own bowling but the break in play disrupted his momentum as he holed out soon after.

In response, Sam Harper began with a crunching boundary but played an innocuous scoop to have his stumps castled in the first over. Peter Handscomb survived a nick behind to Billings as the Thunder didn't appeal but his luck ran out when he was rapped on the pads off Andrews. Glenn Maxwell then reverse-swept Andrews for three fours before smashing Sangha for six, but was eventually caught out.

Thunder roared back into the contest with back to back wickets of Maxwell and Curran, effectively sealing the contest off Sangha. Hilton Cartwright and Mark Steketee clinched timely boundaries to allow the Stars to dare to dream again but they fell to McAndrew to take the Thunder through to the Challenger.

Brief Scores:

• Sydney Thunder: 135/7 in 19 overs (Oliver Davies 36, Matthew Gilkes 28; Tom Curran 2-26, Usama Mir 2-26)
• Melbourne Stars: 114 in 18 overs (Glenn Maxwell 28, Mark Steketee 18; Nathan McAndrew 5-16, Tom Andrews 2-20)