BBL 2024 2024/25, Adelaide Strikers vs Melbourne Stars 6th Match, Adelaide Match Report, December 20, 2024

Online Editor "Valley Vision" 17 hours ago

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Adelaide Strikers 165 for 6 (Short 60, Ross 35, Siddle 2-21, Milne 2-32) beat Melbourne Stars 150 for 9 (Harper 48, Pope 3-21, Short 2-23, Overton 2-44) by 15 runs

Legspinner Lloyd Pope earned redemption and late inclusion D’Arcy Short starred as Adelaide Strikers beat early-season strugglers Melbourne Stars by 15 runs at Adelaide Oval in the BBL.

Short (60 off 42 balls) wasn’t scheduled to play but was called up on Friday after a calf niggle sidelined Chris Lynn.

The only meaningful support for Short came from Alex Ross (35 off 26) as Strikers made 165 for 6 in their first home match of the campaign, before Stars responded with 150 for 9.

Opener Sam Harper (48 off 44) kept Stars in the game, but noted big-hitters Marcus Stoinis (27 off 19) and Glenn Maxwell (15 off 5) produced cameos rather than a major innings.

Strikers’ spin trio took four of the first five wickets and six all up, with Pope (3 for 21) spearheading their attack. Pope showed great resilience after suffering the indignity of leaking 31 runs in a match-tilting over in Strikers’ first-game loss to Sydney Thunder in Canberra on Tuesday.

He took the key wicket of Harper and was well backed-up by fellow legspinner Cameron Boyce (1 for 31) and fingerspinner Matthew Short (2 for 23).

Maxwell, who played his first BBL game of the season, threatened to take control of the match after reverse-sweeps for six off his second and third balls off Boyce. But paceman Henry Thornton (1 for 16) trapped the big-hitter lbw, backing up his spin trio superbly.

The game also produced one of the best catches in BBL history, with Englishman Ben Duckett taking a wonderful leaping right-handed snare at extra cover to dismiss D’Arcy Short. That was the sole highlight of Duckett’s night as the hard-hitting opener was trapped lbw for a golden duck off the third ball of the innings bowled by Matthew Short.

All bar two of D’Arcy Short’s first 28 runs came from boundaries, with a six and five fours.

Ollie Pope made just eight off ten balls before being caught behind off a poor attempted ramp.

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