BBL10 | Match Report: Vintage Wells, Rashid Khan and Agar take Strikers past Stars

Jonathan Wells for the first time in this entire BBL10 looked like himself as he steered the Adelaide Strikers’ ship, which at times looked like spilling over, to a victory against a hard-fought Melbourne Stars at the Adelaide Oval. With the help of his 27 balls 36 at a very crucial stage in the game, the Alex Carey side achieved teh 150 run target set by the Stars to go to the top four in the league’s points table. 

Gibson-Wells partnership

At one p[oint of time after having lost the Bash Boost point and subsequently the wicket of skipper Carey, the Strikers couldn’t get the required momentum in their chase and by the time Jake Weatherald looked like upping the ante, he was dismissed by Adam Zampa resulting in a precarious situation where the Adelaide team required 53 from 33 and a new man Ryan Gibson on the crease. 

However, post the Weatherald wicket the complexion of the game changed as Wells started to shift his gears and after getting only six runs from the first power surge over, he and Gibson hit 14 in the next over to make the surge reasonably useful getting 20 from two overs. But the real change came in the 18th over as having scored a meager four runs from the 17th over, the pressure had mounted on the Strikers and they now needed thirty from three overs. 

It was at this moment that Wells, 32, showed his class, hitting the most dangerous bowler Rauf for 14 runs in three balls before finally getting out attempting another big hit. But by the time his wicket fell, the Strikers were in the touching distance with just 16 required off 13 balls. And the 37 run partnership between Gibson and Wells had done the trick for the team. 

Bash Boost and the Stars' domination

Right from the time that Nic Madddinson hit two sixes in the last over to take Stra to respectable and fighting 149, from a pretty hopeless situation, there was a spark among the men in green on the field. They started well bowling tighter lines and not giving away much room for the Strikers to strike. In fact, most of the runs in the first half of the Strikers’ innings came from thick edges that either did not carry or were good enough to pass the fielder. 

In fact, teh bowling had been so tight and accurate that Strikers weren’t even able to get the Bash Boost point and their skipper Carey got out trying to get the Boost as they needed seven from the 10th over, but Zampa had restricted them to just four of the five deliveries and three was required off the last ball to get first points of the game. Trying to hit a four, Carey reverse swept and it was caught brilliantly by Maddinson at short third man. At the end of the 10th over the Men in Blue were 65/3 needing some real sensible batting, which fortunately came from Wells. 

Agar- Rashid shine with the ball

Appearing in his last BBL game of the season, teh 22-year-old Afghan Rashid Khan made sure that it was memorable for him, not only by being there to see his team through with the bat but most importantly by doing what he is known for- picking wickets at the right time. tODAY, Danny Briggs, usually the most economical bowler in the Strikers lineup was taken for the cleaners and thus Khan decided to turn out his best as he knocked out Nick Larkin and Glenn Maxwell, two big fishes in two consecutive deliveries to jolt an already weak looking Stars lineup. Rashid ended his spell with 2/29 in four and was cheered by the loving Oval crowd after every ball. 

Another bowler that made sure that Stars never got going was Wes Agar, now the joint highest wicket-taker with Jhye Richardson with 17 wickets in the BBL10 so far. He bowled exceptionally as well, picking up the wickets of Spiceman Andre Fletcher and the dangerous Marchus Stoinis just when he was looking to let loose in his start-stop innings. Agar finished with the figures of 2/19 from his four

Stars' batsmen lacked application of skills

There was nobody in the Stars line up apart from Maddisnson who tried to apply himself and sticker the crease, (Larkin did stick but his stay was miserable, to say the least). From a soft dismissal of Fletcher to a nothing shot by Stoinis, to Maxwell being Maxwell. Nobody was able to make amends with the situation and had it not been for Maddinson’s 34 balls 48 not out which included two sixes and three fours, teh match would have been over pretty soon. 

Stars seriously need to get rid of Fletcher the batsman and bring back Nicholas Pooran in if they want to have a crack at entering the Playoffs.   

What's Next?

These two teams clash once again at the same venue in three days' time on 15th January, where Stars would try hard to avenge this loss and get their points table going.

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