"More disappointing not to get the not out and see the boys home," the Hobart Hurricanes batsman said.

McDermott fell four runs shy of his second career BBL century with a scintillating knock guiding Hobart to a six-wicket win over the Sydney Thunder at Manuka Oval on Monday night.

The Hurricanes batsman blasted five sixes and eight fours in his 96 (56) to ignite Hobart's finals hopes, dealing Sydney their fourth defeat in five games.

Hobart have risen from seventh to equal-second with 23 points on the BBL ladder. Only net run rate separates the Thunder, Melbourne Stars and Hurricanes with three games remaining.

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Perth have slipped to fifth and pushed Brisbane out of the top five, with those two sides to collide on Tuesday night in a match which could have a drastic effect on the finals picture.

McDermott, who now boasts scores of 96, 91 and 89 not out in this tournament alone having already posted a first class century against India this summer, stole the show in the run chase.

"It's the most consistent I've been, normally it's a little bit up and down. Touch wood, hopefully I can keep going and bring that momentum through to the finals," McDermott said.

"It's probably the best I've played that I can remember. That's natural when you're growing up, I'm 26 now so I'm getting towards the peak of my career, so it's nice to hit your straps when you're my age. Hopefully I can keep going.

"With the table being so tight, it's anyone's game. Hopefully we can keep winning. We're coming up against some pretty good teams in the Scorchers and the Sixers in the next couple of games, so we need to be on and play like we did tonight.

"We started a bit slow and I was a little bit disappointed in the way we started. It was good to get going towards the middle there.

"We took the surge at the 10th and that drove the momentum for us. It was nice to get the win and keep the momentum going."

McDermott's fireworks came despite a shaky start for the visitors, after Scott Boland had turned the game on its head with the ball during the Thunder's innings.

Alex Hales (29) and Usman Khawaja (27) combined for a 64-run opening stand but the Thunder slumped to 3-66 in the blink of an eye.

Boland claimed the scalps of Hales, Ollie Davies (0) and Khawaja in the space of five balls to reignite the Hurricanes, and he soon added Sam Billings (50) to his list of victims to finish with 4-41.

The Thunder were defending 6-177 and found themselves in the box seat from the first ball of the run chase when Kiwi tearaway Adam Milne - who cleared the 152km/h mark tonight - ripped through Will Jacks with his opening delivery.

But Hobart fought their way back to claim the Bash Boost point at the 10-over mark, and from there the McDermott show simply could not be stopped.

He so nearly fell agonisingly short of the milestone when he skied one on 94 before being dropped by Adam Milne. One ball later he picked out Ollie Davies and he was on his way for 96, but it mattered little in the end.

"We got off to a good start with the ball and I thought we had a total that was a winning total with our attack. We certainly got off to a good start with the ball, we got off to a flyer," Thunder captain Callum Ferguson said.

"I was a bit disappointed, we probably just didn't execute our plans as well as we could have. Benny played beautifully, I felt like we just struggled to get him off strike at times when he was going well, which is something we do quite well usually.

"On the back of that they built some serious momentum through the middle of the innings. He was fantastic tonight and put us under a lot of pressure. Unfortunately we weren't quite good enough."

The clash marks the 10^th and final instalment of Canberra's Big Bash games - a fair haul considering for some time it seemed there may be none.

And for the first time Manuka Oval endured a bizarre twist - the lights in the media box were switched off between innings after word a player complained they were too bright.

The Thunder now move to Adelaide for three games to round out the regular season. First comes a Sydney derby against the ladder-leading Sixers, before back-to-back games against the Strikers on their home turf.

AT A GLANCE

Big Bash League: HOBART HURRICANES 4-181 (Ben McDermott 96, Dawid Malan 42; Tanveer Sangha 2-45, Nathan McAndrew 1-24) bt SYDNEY THUNDER 5-177 (Sam Billings 50, Alex Hales 29; Scott Boland 4-41, Nathan Ellis 1-35) by six wickets at Manuka Oval.