Sydney Sixers captain Moises Henriques says their surging cross-town rival Sydney Thunder could go all the way and successfully defend their BBL title.
Beaten in their first four matches, Thunder have roared back into finals contention with three straight wins.
They crushed the higher-placed Sixers by eight wickets with ten overs to spare in a one-sided Sydney derby at the SCG on Saturday.
With Melbourne Stars beating Perth Scorchers in Saturday's late game, both those teams are on eight points along with the Sixers and Brisbane Heat, athough the Stars and Heat have played one game less.
Thunder are two points back in fifth, but have a superior net run rate to the fourth placed Sixers after Saturday's rout.
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Thunder host last-placed Adelaide Strikers in their final game, while Sixers finish up away to the ladder-leading Stars.
But both Sydney teams are facing a must-win scenario.
"If they (Thunder) get there (to the semi-finals), it means we've probably missed out," Henriques said.
"I would imagine we're not going to be able to get through on four wins, just purely because of our net run rate.
"We have to win our next game and Thunder definitely would have helped their chances with a good win tonight.
"They've got a good team and they've got a good list and well led by Shane Watson, who is a world class player."
Henriques stressed the Sixers needed to work on their batting, both individually and collectively after tallying just 99 - the lowest score of the competition.
"The decision making was actually the biggest problem," Henriques said.
"Obviously execution was one, but there were times where we shouldn't even have been considering some of the shots that we did, I was one."
"We've got to.go back and learn how to build an innings individually and learn how to build an innings as a team as well."
