The Adelaide Strikers thumped the winless Melbourne Stars by eight wickets last night at the Adelaide Oval. Here are five takes from the match.
1. Strikers go top
The Strikers surged to the top of the BBL table with a comprehensive eight-wicket victory. Adelaide made light work of the Stars 6 for 151, passing it in the 18th over with half-centuries from Alex Carey and Travis Head igniting the home side.
The Stars were helped by a classy 60 from Glenn Maxwell, however, their top order struggled once again, despite a reshuffle and new opening batsman in Marcus Stoinis who made 39. The Stars have now lost their opening five games and stunningly, look to be out of finals contention altogether just halfway through their campaign.
2. Head signs off in style
Travis Head signed off from BBL07 with his best innings of the season, crashing 53 from 32 balls before he heads off to the Australian ODI team with his side sitting on top of the table.
Head has looked in great touch all tournament, but played with more aggression last night targeting the Stars’ struggling bowling pair of Scott Boland and John Hastings.
Head was especially savage through the leg side as he crashed three 6s to help ease the nerves after a sluggish start to the run chase. While the Strikers’ batting has been pretty good this season, they will struggle to replace a lynchpin like Head at number three.
(AAP Image/David Moir)
3. Carey controlling games from the top
Alex Carey has reminded me of Michael Klinger this year as a T20 opener, in the way he is controlling games for the Strikers. He isn’t the biggest hitter or most dynamic player in the world, however, he has batted very intelligently and is able to find the boundary in several different areas.
The Strikers opener is the most surprising name of the top five run scorers, with 223 runs at an average of 56 and a more than respectable strike rate of 128.
Carey, far from being overwhelmed by being given the opening role, has been busy and shown intent in his stroke play, always looking to score, even if not crashing everything for boundaries.
He has shown exactly why there was hype about him being plucked into the Australian Test team earlier this season, before the selectors opted for the experienced Tim Paine. Carey, with his tidy glove work and expanding batting game, looks a certainty to be next in line after Paine.
4. Stars in need of a rebuild
The Stars, like the Sixers, look like a franchise in need of some rebuilding. Outside of the Perth Scorchers, the Stars and Sixers have been the most consistently successful sides in terms of winning games and making the finals.
They have done this by sticking with the players bringing them relative success, however, without a title in seven years, it’s time for changes in Melbourne.
Ricky Ponting didn’t hold back last night in his assessment of the team, saying five or six changes are needed, as well as looking for potential trades of older players.
The likes of overseas import Luke Wright would be feeling the pressure as well, with several teams opting for mystery spinners with outstanding success this season.
(image: AAP)
5. Hastings struggling with captaincy
Stars’ skipper John Hastings is having a real baptism of fire in his debut season as captain. If truth be told, Hasting would be lucky to be in the side if he didn’t have the captaincy.
Hastings has taken just three wickets through five games and is going for over nine runs per over. While he gives his side depth with the bat, he is averaging just 11, and is struggling as a captain.
Last night, the game was virtually gone, and the Stars’ two best bowlers, James Faulkner and Adam Zampa, had only bowled a combined three overs between them.
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