Twitter Reactions: Captain Ingram leads Adelaide Strikers’ triumph against the Stars

Going into the match at the Adelaide Oval, both Melbourne Stars and Adelaide Strikers had three wins out of six under the belt. However, the hosts, captained by Travis Head, won by 41 runs and moved to the second position of the points table. With the tournament in its business end, the Stars find themselves in a precarious position as far as this edition’s Big Bash League (BBL) is concerned.

Ingram steps up

The Stars won the toss and elected to bowl first, but it backfired as the hosts amassed 178 runs for five wickets in 20 overs. The openers- Matthew Short and Jake Weatherald- perished early to Jackson Bird and Liam Plunkett respectively. Nevertheless, captain Head, who played his first match this season, and Colin Ingram put on 74 for the third wicket from 51 balls to inject momentum into the innings.

Plunkett nipped out Head after the left-hander scored 43 from 31 balls with one four and three sixes. Ingram accomplished his half-century in 33 balls and went on to rack up 57 runs from 41 balls with four boundaries and a couple of hits over the ropes. Jonathan Wells churned out a cameo of 32 from 14 balls to propel the Strikers’ score. Plunkett was the Stars’ most successful bowler with four wickets.

Wickets push Stars back

The Stars started the run-chase in an aggressive manner, courtesy of a stand of 50 runs from 32 balls between Evan Gulbis and Ben Dunk. Speedster Wes Agar castled Gulbis, who scored 37 from 25, to break the ominous-looking partnership. Thereafter, the Stars’ innings completely fell apart as they lost wickets far too frequently, something which didn’t allow them to go after Strikers’ huge score.

From 50-0, the Stars were reduced to 117-8. Dwayne Bravo played a whirlwind hand of 33 from 23 balls with a four and two sixes, but he didn’t get any support from the other batsmen. From the Strikers’ perspective, Ben Laughlin was the standout bowler with three wickets. Even as Michael Neser and Agra picked up two wickets each, Afghan leg-spinner Rashid Khan got rid of the dangerous Bravo.

Here is how Twitter reacted

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