NEW DELHI, Dec 13
Perth Scorchers 102 for 3 beat Melbourne Stars 101 (Behrendorff 3-28) by seven wickets
Two-time defending champions Perth Scorchers remained the BBL benchmark, overpowering Melbourne Stars by seven wickets at the MCG.
After skittling Stars’ top order on Wednesday night and dismissing them for 101 in 19.1 overs, the five-time winners extended their winning streak over them to six. Brisbane Heat also clobbered Stars by 103 runs in the BBL season opener last week.
It was a return to normal service for Scorchers after last Sunday’s farcical match in Geelong against Melbourne Renegades, which was called off after a few overs because of a waterlogged pitch.
Swepson’s sliders and Neser’s stunning catch spearhead Heat’s victory Scorchers’ left-arm opening bowler Jason Behrendorff starred with 3 for 28, including a rare T20 double wicket maiden after the visitors won the toss and made the most of the humid conditions.
“It’s a nice start after a false start in Geelong – we talked about being aggressive and throwing the first punch … we did it quite well tonight,” he said.
As the BBL goes into a break until December 19, it has been an underwhelming tournament so far with the Geelong non-result and a washout among the seven matches.
The obvious difference on Wednesday night was the fortunes of the two top orders – Stars lost their first two wickets in as many overs while the top three Scorchers all made at least 20.
Stars were energetic in the field, but run-out chances went begging – opener Cooper Connolly backed up too far on the second ball of the Scorchers innings and would have been well short had Nick Larkin’s throw hit the stumps.
Aaron Hardie had only made 1 when Liam Dawson’s throw also just missed.
Connolly scored 20, fellow opener Stevie Eskinazi made 25 and Hardie contributed 20 at No. 3 to anchor the innings. It was a tale of near-misses in the field for Stars – Josh Inglis had made 7 at 75 for 3 when he misjudged a delivery from spinner Usama Mir, and Haris Rauf just failed to reach a difficult chance.
Behrendorff had earlier snared acting Stars captain Marcus Stoinis and Nick Larkin in the ninth over.
As good as Scorchers were, Stars batted poorly on a wicket that had been under cover for much of the last 48 hours.
No. 8 Liam Dawson (22) and Rauf showed up their team-mates by putting on 21 for the last wicket and taking the score past 100, while Hilton Cartwright top-scored with 24 from 18 balls.
A missed run-out chance and a dropped catch spared Stars from an even more embarrassing total.
Left-arm wristspinner Hamish McKenzie was on a hat-trick in the 14th over when he dismissed Cartwright and Mir for his first BBL wickets, but Joel Paris safely defended his first delivery. Player-of-the-match McKenzie impressed with a miserly 2 for 12 from his overs.
Melbourne’s inclement start to December had threatened to disrupt the game, with rain forecast for Wednesday night but the showers stayed away.
With Glenn Maxwell (forearm) injured, Stoinis captained Stars, who were also be without Nathan Coulter-Nile (calf) and Joe Burns (illness).
