Sydney Sixers captain Moises Henriques wants to cap his birthday by securing a derby victory over the Sydney Thunder and strengthening his BBL side's spot in the top four.
Henriques turned 32 today, and has already had a successful week by hitting highest BBL score of the season, an unbeaten 61 in the victory over the Adelaide earlier.
A win for the third-placed Sixers, in front of an anticipated 35,000 crowd at the SCG, is next on the agenda and would almost certainly leave the Thunder out of finals contention.
The Thunder would need to win their last game - against Big Bash leaders Hobart Hurricanes - and hope the Melbourne Stars lose their remaining three matches, to stand any chances of making the the top four.
But Henriques says he takes no delight in damaging his cross-town rivals playoff chances, owing to his close relationship with some members of the Thunder camp.
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"I had a nice, relaxed birthday breakfast with one of the Thunder players this morning," he said.
"The birthday's over by tomorrow, but I'll take a win as a present."
"To be honest, I'd like to see them (Thunder) playing finals cricket, but I'd love to see us playing finals cricket a lot more than that.
"It's not about making a dent in their season, it's about making sure we're doing the right things and playing as well as we can be."
Aiming to stop the Sixers is Thunder pace bowler Chris Jordan.
The England international is confident his side can arrest their poor form - which has seen them pick up just two wins in the last seven games - with a victory tomorrow night.
"We cant look at the tables too much, we've just got to focus on winning our next two games and hopefully that starts against the Sixers," Jordan said.
"We have belief in our group and we don't really listen to too much noise outside our camp, we try to concentrate on the things we are doing and focus on our strengths."
