Melbourne Stars remain winless after BBL defeat to Strikers

The Strikers are off the mark in this year’s BBL, beating the Melbourne Stars by 15 runs in Adelaide on Friday night.

The home side were put into bat first and made a modest total of 165/6, helped in large part by a blazing 60 runs off 42 balls from D’Arcy Short.

Openers Matthew Short (11 from 9) and Jake Weatherald (11 from 10) both fell early, while import Ollie Pope (8 from 10) also came and went quickly.

However, Short’s impressive innings kept the momentum going for Adelaide, who were heavy favourites across cricket betting sites to prevail over the winless Stars.

Short was joined by Alex Ross (35 from 26), who helped take the Striker to triple digits.

Some good bowling by Kiwi Adam Milne (2/32) limited the damage at the death, with just three runs from the penultimate over as the Adelaide Strikers moved through to a middling total.

Their 165 runs were more than enough, however, as the Stars suffered a mid-innings collapse and spluttered to 150/9 from their 20 overs.

Sam Harper (48 from 44) started strongly at the top of the order after Ben Duckett was out for a golden duck on the third ball of the innings.

Marcus Stoinis (27 from 19) and Glenn Maxwell (15 from 5) then chipped in with handy contributions, but the remainder of the Melbourne Stars middle order were unable to add anything of note.

Only Tom Curran (22 from 22) provided some resistance, with batters five through 10 all falling for single digits thanks to the pace of Lloyd Pope (3/21) and Jamie Overton (2/44).

“Good to get the first one on the board,” player-of-the-match Pope said afterwards.

“Especially after the last game which was a little bit disappointing.

“I thought everyone chipped in really well tonight on a pretty tough wicket.

“D’Arcy batted really well as well.

“To be honest, I did not talk too much to the bowlers.

“I only told it to (Cameron) Boyce here who had a spin, just trying to do the basics right.

“I’m pretty sure that sort of quicks will be doing as well.

“Really happy to put up a performance on the board.”

With the Strikers picking up their first win of the season, they shorten their odds of winning the title to $7.50 across most Big Bash bookmakers, the fifth line of betting.

The Stars, however, are heavy favourites to finish bottom of the table.

Marantelli Bet puts them at $2.75 to claim the wooden spoon, ahead of the Hobart Hurricanes on $4.50.

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