BBL 11 | Russell muscles Stars past Thunder as Alex Ross’ brilliant innings gets overshadowed

It was an Andre Russell show at the Sydney Showground Stadium, the home of the Sydney Thunder as he muscled his way to a brilliant unbeaten 42 off just 21 balls, smashing six gigantic sixes to lead his team Melbourne Stars to a comfortable six-wicket win with 17 balls remaining in the chase. 

However, when Russell had come to the crease, it wasn’t really comfortable as the Stars had lost to back to back wickets in the same over with Tanveer Sangha accounting for both settled men in Melbourne skipper Glenn Maxwell and opener Marcus Stoinis. 

From 83-2, the team in green were suddenly 83-4 and Russell had to play three dot balls to negotiate what was a double-wicket maiden over from the young leggie. But that was just the silence before the storm that was brought by Russell on the ground.

In the very next over, Russell opened his account with a gigantic six to Nathan McAndrew. That was just the warm-up as the Jamaican hit 20 runs off the next over which was bowled by Daniel Sams. And suddenly the required rate which was climbing to almost nine when he joined at the crease, was down to less than run a ball within two overs. 

From there on, it was just formalities that were completed by Russell and his partner at the other end, Hilton Cartwright who remained unbeaten at 19 off 12 balls to get his team past the winning line with a comprehensive six-wicket win. 

Earlier in the evening, after winning the toss, the Stars invited the Thunder to bat. Their decision was vindicated as they got three key wickets including that of Alex Hales just at the break of the first six overs. From 40-3 in 6.1 overs, Sam Billings tried to build resistance with Alex Ross but got out soon to leave the Thunder fending for themselves at 65-4 with all-rounder Daniel Sams at the crease to accompany Ross. 

As the going was already slow with 11.5 overs having gone past, the dup slowed it down even more in trying to build a platform. At one point, the Thunder were 88/5 in 15 overs, not being able to strike even at six runs per over. But things started to change from there onwards. 

Ross, who was batting at 28 off 27 balls at the end of the 15th over peaked at the right time and hit 49 runs off the next 22 balls that he faced. Sams, who was batting at 8 off 10 balls also hit 14 off the eight balls that he faced to guide Thunder to 151-5 at the end of 20 overs. The men in florescent green scored 73 runs in the last five overs.