Daniel Sams slams Sydney Thunder home against Brisbane Heat in Big Bash League classic

The Sydney Thunder quick is striking them at a respectable 119, but an average of 8.37 hardly sets the world of Twenty20 cricket alight.

So you could imagine the scenes when he scored a stunning half-century to secure the Thunder a breathtaking Big Bash League win over the Brisbane Heat at Manuka Oval on Monday night.

The highest score of Sams' Twenty20 career - an unbeaten 65 from 25 balls with seven sixes - propelled the Thunder to a shock four-wicket win with seven balls remaining.

Sams, who worked with Ricky Ponting in the IPL, came to the crease with his side in all sorts of strife at 5-80 in pursuit of Brisbane's 6-178, with the Thunder's top three all falling in Jack Wildermuth's early blitz.

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Slowly but surely, the required run rate began to dip and Sams' strike rate began to rise as he took control of a scintillating 69-run sixth-wicket stand with Ben Cutting.

With three overs remaining Sydney required 32 runs to win. Heart rates began to rise in both camps - Brisbane fearing they could lose what seemed a fait accompli, and the Thunder wondering if they could pull off a stunning win.

When Sams belted Ben Laughlin over the fence on a no-ball, the equation was 17 from 12. Three balls later he cleared the Manuka Oval pickets again. And again. Suddenly the equation was five from eight. So he cleared the fence again, this time to win the game with more than an over to spare.

"I know that I'm good enough at this level with my batting, I think I just wasn't switched on mentally and I let the occasion get the better of me [during a lean run last season]," Sams said.

"It was kind of the same last game, trying to hit a ball first ball. I was just giving myself a chance and the best opportunity to get the guys over the line.

"You don't want to let it go to the last over, anything can happen. Luckily enough, Ben missed, he doesn't usually because he is a very good bowler. We were lucky he missed a few and I was able to get them over the fence. I was just trying to be still and clear.

"Confidence is a really funny thing. One of the things I've been working on is just trying to keep my confidence nice and level, not letting my confidence from my performances shoot up or shoot low. That way I'm able to come into every game feeling the same about it.

"It's one of those wins you look back on at the midway point of the tournament and you really lean on it for confidence."

It ruined what for so much of the night looked like another chapter in the Jack Wildermuth fairytale.

Little more than 24 hours ago he sat in the change rooms of the Sydney Cricket Ground, fresh off a brilliant 111 for Australia A against a touring Indian outfit boasting the bulk of a Test bowling attack.

That was after he rattled the Indians' middle order with 3-13 from eight overs on day one of the tour match, which serves as the tourists' final hit out chasing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Tonight? A lazy 31 (11) with the bat, boosting Brisbane's total after skipper Chris Lynn blasted a 44-ball 69, and 3-23 with the ball.

Wildermuth rattled Alex Hales' middle stump and then sent Callum Ferguson packing moments later, both adding nought to the scorecard. He had Usman Khawaja caught behind for 17 in his next over.

At that point it was all Brisbane, after Lynn won the bat flip earlier in the night and decided - from a distance after he and Dan Lawrence came under investigation for a suspected breach of BBL bubble protocols - the Heat would bat first.

The Heat skipper may well have had a point to prove when Ben Cutting was thrown the ball, after the Thunder gun lit the fuse for a grudge match when he took aim at Brisbane chiefs he believes were behind a mass exodus at the BBL club.

Lynn made a statement with a rapid half-century - the 19^th of his BBL career - passing 150 Big Bash sixes in the process against a Thunder outfit bereft of answers to stop the onslaught.

Yet for all the nights we have spent watching Lynn light up the Big Bash, this one looked slightly different. Lynn and Lawrence stood well clear of their teammates in a pre-match huddle. A fresh pair of batting gloves, drink bottles and towels were placed on the ground rather than handed to them by the 12th man. Debriefs with batting partners were done from a distance at the end of each over.

One suspects Sydney wouldn't have minded if Lynn had been sidelined for the night, especially when Wildermuth's rampage left them teetering at 3-22 in the third over. It left them calling for an unlikely hero.

Sams would prove to be just that.

AT A GLANCE

Big Bash League: SYDNEY THUNDER 6-180 (Daniel Sams 65*, Alex Ross 34; Jack Wildermuth 3-23, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 1-27) bt BRISBANE HEAT 6-178 (Chris Lynn 69, Jack Wildermuth 31; Jonathan Cook 2-31, Daniel Sams 2-32) at Manuka Oval.