Sixers skipper Moises Henriques says his team doesn't deserve a Big Bash finals spot following its humiliating loss in the Sydney Smash, but will gladly accept the top-four finish on offer should it beat the Melbourne Stars on Saturday night.
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Only a win for Henriques and his magenta-clad teammates at the MCG on Saturday night, a week after the eight-wicket thumping to the Thunder, will secure their playoff place.
The Melbourne Renegades spectacularly kept their season alive on Friday night with a one-run win over the Brisbane Heat, relegating the Sixers to fifth in the table ahead of their clash with the Stars.
But such is the dire state of their competition-worst net run-rate, the Sixers will need a victory on Saturday if Hobart or the Renegades manage a last-round win.
Henriques said the key for his side hinged on batting intelligently.
"On the back of a couple of results we can still get through somehow. We probably don't deserve to the way we've played the other night," Henriques said.
"Net run-rate wise we're nowhere. We don't think there's an issue with the skill and the talent we have in our batting order, it's more so just the decision-making.
"I mentioned after the last game, and we spoke about it, you don't get to scores of 170 and 185, chase scores like that without giving yourself a chance early on in your innings.
"Coming off a couple of good chases, all the batters probably went too hard too early in their innings [against the Thunder]."
Henriques was one of only three Sixers batsmen who made it into the teens against the Thunder, with Nic Maddinson, Colin Munro and Brad Haddin all dismissed in single figures. Maddinson and Henriques fell in successive balls trying to slog Thunder leg spinner Fawad Ahmed.
Saturday night's game will be Maddinson's first at the MCG since the second Test against Pakistan, after which selectors told the left-handed batsman his services in the Baggy Green were no longer required.
"Hopefully tomorrow night's the night for Nic and obviously for us we'd love to see that because he's such a huge player in our batting order," Henriques said.
"He's never one to give up too much whether he's not going well or he's going well. He's pretty even emotionally most of the time.
"He's one of those batters than can change the game in the space of a few overs, there's no ground big enough for him.
"It's just a matter of him giving himself a chance and it's the nature of this game. It might just be a couple of balls or a couple of shots to get you back on your feet and get you running and kick-start you into a mountain of runs."
