BBL 2020-21: Melbourne Stars defeat Sydney Thunders by 22 runs to get their second win of season

Melbourne Stars earned their second win of Big Bash League 2020-21 to go on top of the points table. After a comfortable win over Brisbane Heat on Friday, the Stars were again at their best when they took on Sydney Thunders on Saturday.

Having gotten out for a duck on Friday, Marcus Stoinis seemed determined to make his knock on Saturday count and gave the Stars’ a brisk start up the order after they won the toss and elected to bat. His 61 of 37 balls gave the Stars a great start as they were at 92/1 in 10 overs.

But Thunders, led by Daniel Sams and Tanveer Sangha managed to pull it back in the next 10 overs as Melbourne only managed 169/8 in their 20 overs. Skipper Glenn Maxwell chipped in with a 39 of



29 balls, but could not give his team the acceleration they needed to set a bigger score.

However, led by Adam Zampa and Liam Hatcher, Stars were brilliant in their bowling. Adam Zampa spun a web around the Thunders and returned with bowling figures of 4-0-10-2, to earn the Man-of-the-Match title. Hatcher took wickets at will and finished with bowling figures of 4-0-28-3. He got the wickets of Thunders’ skipper Callum Ferguson, all-rounder Ben Cutting and Daniel Sams.

The Thunder were always behind the rate in the chase despite a classy half-century from skipper Callum Ferguson. But apart from the 2nd wicket partnership with Alex Hales, the Thunders were unable to stitch together any other key partnerships.