Hobart Hurricanes climbed up in 3rd place, beating Melbourne Stars by 24 runs. The Hurricanes are now four points behind the Sidney Sixers. On the other hand, Melbourne have lost two consecutive matches in this tournament. They won just one game in their previous five matches.
Match Report
Hurricanes skipper Matthew Wade won the toss at Blundstone Arena. He decided to bat first against the Stars. With 93 runs in the opening over, the two openers proved the captain’s decision to choose the first bat is correct. Opener Ben McDermott scored the highest 67 runs for the Hurricanes. Before losing the wicket, he hit four boundaries and four over boundaries. On the other side, skipper Wade scored 39 runs from 37 balls.
Although their opening partnership was brilliant, they couldn’t cross 200 runs against the Stars. The middle-order and the lower-order batsmen couldn’t continue the pace of picking runs. On the middle-order, Tim David became not-out, scoring 22 of 12. But the next three batsmen couldn’t cross five runs. Two of them had gone to the pavilion with zero runs.
So after 20 overs, the Hurricanes scored 180 runs, losing six wickets. Caribbean pacer Andre Russell picked up three wickets of Hobart Hurricanes. Nathan Coulter-Nile got two wickets, and Brody Couch got one.
Chasing the target of 181, Melbourne Stars also had a good opening partnership. The skipper sent Marcus Stoinis as the opener batsman. He made a partnership of 37 runs with Joe Clarke. Then Stoinis lost his wicket to Tom Rogers. The other opener, Joe Clarke, made a brilliant half-century in this match. He scored the highest 52 runs for the Stars. Before losing the wicket, Clarke hit three sixes and a four.
But captain Glenn Maxwell failed again to save his team. He had to go back to the pavilion after scoring only 12 runs. The Caribbean hard-hitter, Andre Russell, also failed to play long innings. He followed the same way as Maxwell did.
However, Hilton Cartwright tried to tackle the situation. But due to the aggression of the Hurricanes bowler, he couldn’t stay longer. Tom Rogers picked his wicket in the 20th over. As a result, Melbourne Stars lost the match by 24 runs.
Summery
Hobart Hurricanes: 180/6 (20 Overs)
Melbourne Stars: 156/9 (20 Overs)