BBL 10 | Stoinis, Zampa help Melbourne Stars in overpowering Sydney Thunder

Melbourne Stars comprehensively defeated Sydney Thunder in their second game of the 10th edition of the Big Bash League (BBL). Their season has started on a dominating note. Thunder needed 26 runs off the last over which the Stars’ skipper trusted Adam Zampa to bowl, on the basis of his form leading up to the last over. The leg-spinner showed that it was too many to get for Thunder, especially, by their lower-order batsmen.

Chasing a steep target of 170 runs on a Manuka Oval pitch that had something to offer for both pacemen and spinners, Thunder were caught napping with the bat as the Stars bowling line up choked the flow of their runs and thwarted any chance of them running away with the game.

However, the Sydney side did get off to a decent start till the third over as the opening pair of Alex Hales and Usman Khwaja looked in great touch.

Stars’ captain Maxwell chose himself to start the proceedings for his team but the move backfired as Hales took advantage of field restrictions and pummelled the off-spinner for 11 runs to set up the chase. But a highly-rated overseas import of Stars from Pakistan - Dilbar Hussain - got the breakthrough to send Khwaja back to the pavilion, although the replays showed the left-hander had missed the ball. 

Thunder’s skipper Callum Ferguson was the next man in to join Hales in the pursuit of the target. It was still not out of the team's grasp and he started with a thumping pull shot against Hussain’s delivery that set up for him to dispatch to the boundary.

However, the duo got caught up thanks to tight bowling by the Stars’ bowlers as they kept on faltering in their attempts to clear boundaries. Alex Hales could get a few shots going but even his attempts to go big for a sustained period of time were checked by bowlers.

At the 10-over mark, Thunder could reach only 68/1, which was significantly lower than the score of 92/1 put by the Stars batting first. Letting the required run rate jump over 10 runs per over from the starting requirement of 8.5 was a mistake that the pair of Ferguson and Hales had committed. They tried to deny the Stars any benefit of it with Hales pulling off a desperate six over the long-off boundary on the very first ball of the 11th over as the Sydney team extracted 12 runs off that over from Hilton Cartwright. Fergusson too was not far behind as Billy Stanlake was put to the sword in the next over and the skipper took 10 runs off him, to ward off some pressure they had put on themselves.

However, Hales’ period of joy was short and the left-arm wrist spinner Clint Hinchliffe got him caught at the mid-wicket boundary when the Englishman tried to continue the momentum of the last two overs. Hales’ wicket broke the back of Thunder’s innings as he was the set batsman. Although, Ferguson was still there.

It was all Ferguson’s responsibility to see the team through after Hales’ wicket and he looked set to do that by hitting a couple of fours and a six in no time and notched up his half-century. But as was the case with Hales, he too fell exactly after getting into a good rhythm of ball-striking.

All the pressure on Ferguson and Hales was imposed due to the impressively economical spell of bowling from Stars’ wrist spinners, especially Adam Zampa who is showing signs of maturing with every match. He was brought into the attack in the sixth over and by the completion of the 10th, had yielded only five runs from his first two overs. 

Maxwell, the captain, was proactive and called him for his second spell right after the fall of Ferguson and he made sure to squeeze out any chances of Thunder’s recovery, giving away just two runs in the 16th over of the innings when the team required 54 of the last 30 balls.

Right-arm pacer Liam Hatcher made sure to reap the rewards of some outstanding bowling from the other end as he got Ferguson caught at the cover boundary and followed it up with twin strikes in his next over to make a massive dent in the Thunder’s chasing effort. He took the key wicket of Ben Cutting in the 17th over who, otherwise, could have proved to be detrimental for the Stars with his power-hitting abilities.

Thunder needed 36 from the last two overs and Hilton Cartwright and Adam Zampa made light of the Stars’ work, taking two wickets each in their last overs to put the game in Stars’ favour.

Earlier, Stars’ captain Glenn Maxwell won the toss and elected to bat first on a pitch that was already used in one game and showed signs of slowing up in the second innings. Stars have stacked up all their batting power at the top of the order and their might was put on display at the start of the match when Marcus Stoinis and an overseas import, Andre Fletcher, started with a bang.

Stoinis started in his usual 'stand and deliver' fashion and was not worried one bit about the failure he had in the last game against Brisbane Heat with that approach. The right-hander kept on getting outside the line of stumps and hitting spinners over the top for fun. 

Ferguson had asked leg spinner Jonathan Cook to bowl the first over in hope of an early breakthrough. But Stoinis was in no mood to provide Thunder with an upper hand and he smashed Cook over his head for a big six to make his intentions clear.

Daniel Sams, who is now richer in terms of experience after playing for Australia in the T20I series against India, was guilty of bowling mixed lengths to Andre Fletcher who wasted no time in serving him a lesson and stamped his authority of being an international player. A fuller ball was driven to the extra cover boundary while a short ball outside off stump was slapped for a six over point region.

Stoinis’ assault grew bigger in the next over as off-spinner Chris Green, who could not get a game in the recent edition of IPL, was treated with disdain and was hit for a four and six over his head. Stoinis was in no mood to relent and let the off-spinner go. He cut the last ball for four towards the point boundary to make a statement about the kind of cricket the Stars want to play, something already suggested by them placing all their batting might at the top.

Under pressure, Ferguson called on Australia's find from the  under-19 World Cup earlier this year, leg-spinner Tanvir Sangha, and he showed his worth by giving much-needed relief to Ferguson with the wicket of Fletcher in his very first over of Big Bash cricket.

Stoinis was relentless though and as Maxwell joined him in the middle, fresh from swashbuckling innings in the last match, the duo started to pile on the misery for Thunder’s bowling attack.

Jonathan Cook returned with his third over after the completion of the 10th over and took the wicket of Stoinis, but not before the all-rounder had torn apart the bowling attack with a 37-ball 61. 

The next man in, Hilton Cartwright, took time to settle but both he and Maxwell were caught batting a bit slowly in the middle overs as Thunder’s bowlers started effectively using cutters and slower balls.

When Maxwell departed in the 15th over, the over after Cartwright’s dismissal, who also got out looking for runs after calling on the power surge in the 13th over, Stars were reliant on Ben Dunk and Nick Larkin to power them to an above-par score. But both failed to do so.

The Stars are off to a rollicking start to the season with all eight points into their pockets from the first two games while Thunder will look back at the middle phase of their chase, among other issues, to resolve as the tournament progresses.

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