Twitter Reactions: Haris Rauf's five-wicket haul helps Melbourne Stars beat Hobart Hurricanes

In the first match for the day, Melbourne Stars locked horns with Hobart Hurricanes in the on-going Big Bash League. However, a world-class spell bowled by pacer Haris Rauf steered Stars in winning the match by 52 runs. After winning the second consecutive match, Glenn Maxwell and Co have now moved up to the second position in the points table.

At the starting, Stars skipper Glenn Maxwell won the toss and elected to bat. It turned out to be a good decision as their opener Nic Maddinson (40 runs off 39 balls)  and Marcus Stoinis (81* runs off 41 balls) stitched a brilliant opening partnership of 81 runs.

Hurricane bowler Riley Meredith helped his side in getting their first breakthrough as he dismissed a settled batsman- Nic Maddinson. The left-handed batsman sliced the full-length delivery to get a boundary but ended up giving a catch to Milenko at backward point.

Marcus Stoinis and Haris Rauf help Stars in clinching their 2nd win in BBL 2019-20

However, on the other hand, Marcus Stoinis looked in full flow with the bat and was smashing the Hurricane bowlers all across the park. His hard-hitting helped Stars in posting a competitive total of 163 runs at a loss of four wickets in stipulated 20 over. The previous game’s hero Glenn Maxwell (2) failed to perform against Hurricanes with the bat and was dismissed by Qais Ahmad.

Riley Meredith turned out to be the best bowler for Hurricanes, who registered brilliant bowling figures of 3/27 as he dismissed Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell and Peter Handscomb in a four-over spell.

Coming onto the chase, Hobart got off to a poor start as they lost their inform batsman D’arcy Short in the third over of the innings. The left-handed batsman added only nine runs before his inning came to a halt. He tried to hit the short delivery bowled by Glenn Maxwell for a six but didn’t got his elevation right and ended up giving a sitter to Daniel Worrall.

They also lost their top-order batsman, Ben McDermott (5) and David Miller (7) in back to back overs that left Hurricanes struggling on a score of 54 runs with four wickets. Moreover, none of the batsmen from the middle-order could play a sensible knock with the bat.

Haris Rauf, the fast bowler of Melbourne Stars, bowled at his absolute best against the Hurricanes’ batsmen. The 25-year-old looked quite unpredictable, who successfully managed to deceive opponent batsmen with his pace. Rauf dismissed three Hurricane batsman in his second over of the match and it turned out to be a game-changing over. The pacer went on taking his first five-wicket haul of Big Bash League 2019-20.

The right-handed speedster was signed as the replacement of injured Dale Steyn and he proved his worth by giving a match-winning performance. Haris Rauf was also given Man of the Match for taking a five-wicket haul against Hobart Hurricanes.

Hurricanes failed to chase down the target and faced a big defeat by 52 runs. After the match, fans lauded Haris Rauf for his match-winning performance against Hobart Hurricanes that helped Melbourne Stars in winning their second match of Big Bash League 2019-20.

Here is how Twitter reacted: