David Warner helicoptered into the SCG but he couldn’t pilot Sydney Thunder to victory as their BBL campaign came to end as Sydney Sixers overcame Steven Smith’s first ball-duck to book a finals berth, and remain on course for second place, with another gritty defence of a low total in front of a record crowd.

As has become a trademark for Sixers, they made a middling score a winning one with a superb display with the ball which was sparked by Steve O’Keefe’s double-wicket first over after Thunder’s chase was given a flying start by Warner and Alex Hales. O’Keefe would later return to remove Warner for what became a stodgy 37 to a cap a memorable evening in front of 41,027 fans and was named player of the match.

At 44 for 0 after the powerplay, Thunder were on track chasing 152. But Hales was bowled by a delivery that barely bounced from the round-arm O’Keefe then Cameron Bancroft missed one that went through the gate.

On a tricky surface life became very tough for Thunder and Warner was left trying to hold the innings together but came seriously bogged down: he had been 15 off 7 early on before ending with 37 off 39.

Sixers’ seamers used changes of pace to excellent effect and a key moment came when the dangerous Ollie Davies skied to cover shortly after scooping consecutive boundaries in the first of the power surge with Daniel Sams also falling inside the fielding restrictions.

O’Keefe, who will retire at the end of the season, returned to claim his third wicket when Warner tried to clear the rope. It is all-but certain he will get another outing at the SCG during the finals.

Warner and Smith had contrasting but equally showbiz build-ups to this game; the latter was playing tennis with Novak Djokovic in Melbourne yesterday while Warner took to the skies today to reach the ground from his brother’s wedding.

There was a huge sense of disappointment around the crowd when Smith top-edged his first-ball pull and it landed in the hands of deep square leg. However, it was not as though he owed Sixers too many runs having made 407 at 81.40 in his six previous appearances over the last two seasons.

James Vince and Josh Philippe built steadily from there, although only the latter was really fluent. Vince fell when he swiped across a delivery that kept low from debutant legspinner Toby Gray. Moises Henriques started brightly with two boundaries before driving to mid-off as Sixers stuttered towards the midway point.

Legspinner Tanveer Sangha was again very impressive although his first wicket of Philippe came with one of his worst deliveries when a short delivery was cut to cover. Jack Edwards then had his off stump shaved by Nathan McAndrew.

But Jordan Silk showed his value with 35 off 29 balls and Ben Dwarshuis cleared the rope in the final over to break the 150 mark. Not for the first time, it was enough for Sixers.