Melbourne Stars return to winning ways against Adelaide Strikers

Joe Clarke scored a half-century on his return to the side to help the Stars chase down 139 with five balls to spare and complete a five-wicket win

Melbourne: Adelaide Strikers 139-9, Melbourne Stars 140-5 – Melbourne Stars won by five wickets

Melbourne Stars returned to winning ways in BBL11 with a five-wicket victory over Adelaide Strikers.

Over New Year, the Stars were hit by more than a dozen positive Covid-19 cases and were in danger of losing their grip on the rest of the competition as their severely weakened XI suffered back-to-back defeats against Perth Scorchers and Melbourne Renegades.

However, after welcoming Adam Zampa, Nick Larkin, Beau Webster, Clint Hinchliffe, Joe Burns and Joe Clarke back into the fold, they were able to pick up a valuable four points and climb off the bottom of the table. They are now just one point outside the top five.

Clarke was the star at the MCG, scoring his fourth successive half-century in Stars green to help his side chase down 139 with five balls to spare.

The Englishman found little support from his first three partners – Hinchliffe, Larkin and Burns – as the Stars slipped to 43 for 3 before adding 40 runs off 25 balls with Hilton Cartwright to change the complexion of the chase.

^{Haris Rauf was involved in three late wickets for the Stars [Darrian Traynor/Getty Images]}

He smashed a further 35 runs off 23 balls as part of a 50-run partnership with Webster before being removed for 83 (58 balls) by Peter Siddle (caught Thomas Kelly) with seven runs required off seven balls.

Qais Ahmad made short work of completing the chase, smashing his first delivery of the day for six to level the scores before a wide from Matt Short sealed the win for the Stars.

Earlier in the day, Adelaide Strikers had lost a flurry of early wickets, with Henry Hunt (12), Short (8) and Jake Weatherald (8) departing inside six overs before Jonathan Wells took command with the bat.

The 33-year-old dragged his side from 34 for 3 to 128 for 5, including a productive 47-run stand with Kelly, but was dimissed by Zampa (bowled Webster) for 68 (56 balls) with nine balls remaining.

The Strikers added a further 11 runs before close but lost three wickets in three balls to finish the innings. Harry Nielsen and Siddle were bowled by Haris Rauf while Harry Conway was runout off the final delivery.

Rauf finished with figures of 2 for 25 while Ahmad (2 for 21) and Zampa (2 for 24) also picked up two wickets apiece. Brody Couch and Hinchliffe were the other wicket-takers.

RELATED LINKS (APP OPENS IN EXTERNAL WINDOW)

Scorecard