Sydney Sixers were denied a BBL win over cross-town rivals Sydney Thunder in dramatic fashion, after rain washed out the match at the Sydney Showground. With five overs needed to constitute a match, Sixers were 34 for 1 after four overs in pursuit of 152 for victory when persistent rain stopped play and did not let up in time for players to return.

Sixers would only have needed to be on 33 at the end of the fifth over to win under the Duckworth Lewis Stern system, provided they did not lose another wicket.

The decision prompted Sixers captain Moises Henriques to walk on to the ground with his bat in hand and helmet on in frustration, seemingly arguing that play should not have been stopped.

“It started raining obviously, but just with one over to go, the position we’re in, obviously we wanted to compete the over to constitute a match,” Sixers batter James Vince said.

“I can understand in their position why they’re obviously [keen to] get off, but you know it just started raining. It would have been nice if we could just get the six balls down and have a result in the match.”

Adding to Sixers’ frustrations was the fact that Thunder were one over behind on the over rate, according to the ground’s clock.

The stoppage came after Thunder captain Chris Green had been in discussions with umpire Greg Davidson between overs, before players were taken off.

Vince quipped that it was “borderline intimidation” in a reference to Tom Curran’s recent ban for defying an umpire’s direction.

Thunder batter Alex Ross admitted there had been some gamesmanship.

“It was a little bit of gamesmanship,” said Ross, who top-scored for his side with 44 off 39 balls. “But we did see in the end it came down hard enough to be off, so I think the right decision was made.”

The result keeps Sixers in third spot on the BBL ladder, while Thunder are stuck in second-to-last on points with one win from their opening five games.

Earlier, Sixers allrounder Jack Edwards produced the best bowling figures of his BBL career to keep Thunder to 151 for 7.

Edwards bowled superbly and took the key wickets of Alex Hales (26) and Daniel Sams (30) in figures of 3 for 24.

It came as Thunder stumbled to 53 for 4 in the eighth over, before Sams and Ross helped bat the hosts towards a somewhat competitive score.

But still, the innings belonged to 23-year-old Edwards with the ball. One of the few bright lights of New South Wales’ domestic season, Edwards stood tall on Saturday night. After Hales threatened to go large with a massive six over the leg side off Sean Abbott, Edwards had him caught in the deep in the next over.

And when Ross and Sams looked as if they were setting up for a big finish, Edwards was the man to remove the latter at long-off.

He also accounted for Nathan McAndrew courtesy a neat Jordan Silk boundary catch, in a superb 18th over that went for only three runs.