Alex Hales is hoping that momentum will be a positive factor in his bid to secure BBL glory with Sydney Thunder.
The Outlaw is currently enjoying a stint overseas in the BBL, with his side having qualified for the Eliminator against Hobart Hurricanes on Thursday 30 January.
Hales’ side must win four consecutive matches if he is to emulate Harry Gurney and Dan Christian’s tournament-winning achievements from last season, but the opener feels the schedule may benefit the Thunder.
“It is a tough route, but in T20 so much can come down to momentum,” he said.
“If we win one or two games, you can take that into the games going forward, so it can be a good thing.
“If you play in the Qualifier [the clash between the two sides who top the points table], you don’t actually play for a week between that game and the final, which isn’t always helpful.
“If you can get on a bit of a roll you never know, so that’s certainly our plan.”
Hales is ensconced within the top run-scorers in this year’s edition of the BBL, having hit four half-centuries and scored 449 runs.
But it was a moment of genius in the outfield which provided his standout moment of the group stage, with the right-hander using every inch of his 6ft5in frame to take a staggering catch on the boundary edge.
It was a dismissal which Hales himself admitted took him by surprise.
“I don’t think I’ve ever taken a better one than that,” he said.
“Being my height, agility isn’t one of my natural things, so to pull off a catch like that was very special – especially with it being to remove David Miller, who’s one of the best T20 players in the world.
“I wasn’t quite sure on how I’d timed my jump [for the catch] as I‘d never taken one like that before. I think you can tell from my reaction that I wasn’t 100% sold on it – and I think it looked to the bowler like it went for six! But it was relieving to see it was quite comfortable in the end.”
"If you can get on a bit of a roll you never know."
Alex Hales on BBL success
Two of Hales’ half-centuries this winter have come against Thunder’s opponents in the Eliminator – a fact which he admits he finds heartening ahead of their winner-takes-all clash.
“When you’ve performed well against certain teams in the past you always take that confidence into the next game,” he said.
“Hobart is certainly one of the better places to bat in Australia and has a couple of small boundaries, so hopefully if I get myself in I can go big.”
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