A Sean Abbott-led Sydney Sixers romped to a nine-wicket win over the under-pressure Brisbane Heat in Thursday night's Big Bash League clash at the SCG.
The Sixers chased down the Heat's paltry target of 74 in 10 overs with Daniel Hughes (39), Joe Denly (19) and Nic Maddinson (17) guiding the home side over the line.
The Sixers have strung together three-straight victories and their fans might be questioning where this form has been after they had opened the season with six-successive losses.
Conversely, the Heat, who were without strike weapons Chris Lynn (calf) and Joe Burns (groin), face an uphill battle to make the semi-finals after a bright start to 2017-18.
After stumbling to the franchise's lowest total and third smallest in BBL history, they sit behind the fourth-placed Melbourne Renegades on net run rate.
However, the Renegades have two games in hand before the two sides meet in the final round.
The Heat were in trouble from the outset when skipper Brendon McCullum was dismissed for one in the second over and they never recovered.
The Sixers' bowlers ran riot, as Alex Ross top-scored with 15 and the Heat managed just six boundaries as they were dismissed inside 17 overs.
Overlooked for the one-day international series against England, Test spinner Nathan Lyon sent another message to national selectors about his white-ball ability, taking 2-17.
Allrounder Abbott caused headaches for the Heat batsmen throughout the innings, producing good pace and bounce to finish with figures of 4-11 to earn man-of-the-match honours.
When Jimmy Peirson (14) and Ross were dismissed in almost identical circumstances - caught by Peter Nevill off Abbott - four balls apart, the Heat were 5-43 in the ninth over.
Carlos Brathwaite took 2-20 to clean up the tail, as well as taking a fine diving catch to dismiss Mark Steketee.
"It's been a tough campaign for us," Abbott said.
"Everything has been good off the field so we feel we haven't executed in key stages of matches and let ourselves down at really important times.
"While we've played our way out of the finals, we thought we owed it to the crowd who keep turning up here and packing the stadium out and flicking on the TV."
Heat coach Daniel Vettori conceded the loss damaged their top-four hopes and said his squad were disappointed after targeting the fixture as key to their finals ambitions.
"There's a hell of a lot of disappointment around the performance. After two tough losses to Hobart, we came here with some high hopes and it was obviously a crucial game for us," Vettori said.
"It was a lot more important than one of those games - it's really disappointing."
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