Twitter Reactions: Adelaide Strikers overcome Peter Handscomb’s efforts to secure second spot
Jonathan Wells bagged the Player of the Match for his 36-ball 55.
Melbourne Stars, after their eight-match winning streak, have now lost back-to-back matches in the 2019-20 BBL. In their latest encounter, Glenn Maxwell and Co went down at the hands of the Adelaide Strikers at the Adelaide Oval. Despite the loss, the Stars are set to finish as the table-toppers. For the Strikers, they toppled the Sydney Sixers to the second spot in the points table.
Wells injects impetus
The Strikers had their troubles after being put in to bat first. Glenn Maxwell rattled Phillip Salt’s woodwork to strike first blood. The opener threatened, scoring 22 with four boundaries. Clint Hinchcliffe removed skipper Travis Head in the first over after the powerplay. Jake Weatherald had a pain-staking stay in the middle with a 27-ball 15. Hinchcliffe eventually cut short his painful vigil.
Alex Carey was in no mood to die wondering. The southpaw churned out 33 off 21 with four fours and a couple of sixes before he became Hinchcliffe’s third victim. From there on, Jonathan Wells (55*) and Matthew Short (23*) put on an unbeaten 71-run stand. Their onslaught propelled Strikers to 162 in 20 overs. Adam Zampa had an off-day, leaking 38 runs without a wicket in four overs.
Handscomb’s efforts go in vain
The Stars lost wickets at regular intervals of their run-chase. Peter Siddle got rid of big fish Marcus Stoinis to set the cat amongst the pigeons in the visitors’ camp. Rashid Khan added to the wickets-column, castling Nic Maddinson. Wes Agar stomped in and sent back Nick Larkin and Glenn Maxwell. Both the batters got starts, having scored 19. Michael Neser joined in and picked up Seb Gotch.
In the last four overs, the Stars needed 61 runs with half their side back to the hut. However, Peter Handscomb didn’t throw in the towel and scored 39 runs in the next 18 balls. He got to his fifty off 33 balls to keep the Stars in the game. In the last over, the visiting team required 22 runs to get over the finishing line. But some stupendous piece of bowling from Siddle denied the Stars a victory.
Here is how Twitterati reacted to the Strikers’ victory: –
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