“They’re always scared to face us”: Sangha talks big ahead of BBL Challenger

But will he walk the walk in tonight’s cutthroat final?

IMAGE: Cricket Australia via Getty Images

Young leg spinner Tanveer Sangha has thrown the challenge down to the Sydney Thunder’s crosstown rivals in the ahead of tonight’s clash against the Sydney Sixers at the SCG.

“It’s their home ground, they’re expected to win,” the 23-year-old told CODE Sports earlier this week. “They usually beat the Thunder.”

And he’s not wrong.

The two harbour city teams have played 27 times, with the men in magenta leading the head-to-head count 18-7, with two matches not yielding a result. The Sixers have won the past six completed matches, with the Thunder last beating their crosstown rival on January 22, 2021.

Sangha’s individual record isn’t much better, having played the Sixers seven times for one win, six losses, and a no result. He has taken five wickets in these matches at an average of 28.4 (compared to 46 wickets in 33 non-Sydney Smash matches at an average of 17.8), and scored 17 of his career BBL runs against the Sixers.

But despite this, Sangha was quick to talk up his sides chances, suggesting their top order was vulnerable with James Vince and Steve Smith no longer with the side.

“Knowing their big dogs aren’t there, there’s no one really scoring runs for them,” he said, referencing the Sixers poor batting effort against the Hobart Hurricanes in the Qualifier earlier this week.

The Sixers lost three wickets inside the first three overs, making the ‘Canes 7/173 seem almost out of reach straight out of the gate.

“I think early wickets can really damage them. And I think if we can try and do the same thing, get early wickets and put pressure on them, I think they can be vulnerable,” said Sangha.

While I’m all for banter and trash talk in sports – especially in an environment like T20 cricket where players can be teammates one week and opponents the next – I do have to wonder what Sangha was thinking when he made these comments.

It’s one thing to throw shade when you have a winning history behind you, but it’s a brave individual to come out swinging like this when the team or the individual don’t have a leg to stand on.

I’ll admit that the Sixers haven’t had an incredible second half of the season, but given they have won the second most BBL titles (three, behind the five won by the Perth Scorchers), the second highest win percentage (60.8%, again behind the Scorchers’ 61.0%), and have a whole lot of experience still in the side (Moises Henriques, Jordan Silk, and Ben Dwarshuis have all played more than 100 BBL matches each, with all three at the pointy end of the run-scoring and wicket-taking tables), I feel they have enough credits in the bank to not have to deal with these sorts of comments.

All I hope is that Sangha and his Thunder teammates put up a good fight tonight. I can only imagine what sort of comments the youngster might cop if the Sixers roll them.