Melbourne Stars 5-132 (P Handscomb 70, N Larkin 20; B Dwarshuis 3-26) defeated Sydney Sixers 9-130 (J Silk 41no, S Abbott 22; J Coleman 3-18) by five wickets
Peter Handscomb has dusted off the disappointment of being axed from the Australian Test team to blast a blistering half-century and guide the Melbourne Stars to their first win of season against the Sydney Sixers.
A suffocating bowling performance from the men in green ensured the Sixers managed just 9-130, which was not enough on a favourable pitch and became even more underwhelming when Handscomb got off the mark with a flat-batted six.
Star turn: Peter Handscomb clubs the ball through the offside during his match-winning knock on Thursday night.Credit:AAP
The Test discard played with the utmost freedom in his cameo of 70 from 35 balls as the Stars motored down their target in the 15th over with five wickets still in the sheds.
What a delight it must have been for Handscomb to loft balls over the top nonchalantly without having his polarising technique scrutinised so intensely. Whacking a cricket ball seems to be the kind of therapy the 27-year-old craves at the moment after being dumped by national selectors just two days ago.
While there is little correlation between Thursday’s innings and thwarting any of India’s potent quicks, confidence is king for Handscomb at the moment and if recalled for the fourth Test in Sydney, he will be in a far better head space after his superb knock at the SCG.
The Sixers slumped to their second defeat in as many matches and will need to seriously consider changing personnel after the top order once again struggled to get early momentum, slumping to 5-63 in the 11th over.
Jordan Silk’s controlled 41 from 37 balls was as quintessential as it comes for the 26-year-old, who became the competition’s leading run-scorer with 108 runs in three innings.
His temperament and game management once again gave the Sixers something to defend but Nick Larkin (20 off 22 balls) and Marcus Stoinis (10 off eight) chipped in around Handscomb to get the Stars over the line.
When Sixers opener Jack Edwards was sharply stumped by Handscomb off Adam Zampa on the second ball of the match, the 18-year-old took his Big Bash tally to 26 runs off 19 balls for the tournament. Across all formats, Edwards has made one score over 13 in his last seven innings and is under pressure to live up to the hype that follows him around.
It was no surprise Joe Denly (14) mistimed a slog off Maxwell given the pace and length he was bowling, while Daniel Hughes (20) was bamboozled by a brilliant slower ball from Jackson Coleman on the first ball of his spell.
The Stars’ spinners suffocated the Sixers’ middle-order batsmen. Moises Henriques (9) was the victim of a cracking wrong-un’ from Sandeep Lamichhane and it was scoreboard pressure that coerced Josh Philippe into pulling a ball that wasn’t quite short enough off Dwayne Bravo, which crashed into his stumps.
Coleman (3-18) and Lamichhane (2-18) were the pick of the bowlers, even if the former literally bowled one off the pitch in his first spell. Even Steve Harmison would have been surprised by that one.
There has been a concerning number of collapses in this year’s Big Bash and fewer high-scoring, drama-filled fixtures than previous tournaments.
Sean Abbott hit the first and only maximum of the Sixers’ innings and for the second match in a row helped navigate his team somewhat out of trouble before being caught behind.
Meanwhile, left-arm seamer Greg West had a debut to forget as he went for 23 runs in his only over.
The Sixers’ decision to pick just one spinner for this clash was a little odd, too, but Steve O’Keefe was one of his side’s best in a losing cause. The left-arm tweaker took 2-22 in front of a crowd of 22,221 to give him overall tournament figures of 7-68.
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