The Melbourne Stars have climbed to fourth spot on the BBL ladder following a 111-run thrashing over the Adelaide Strikers tonight.<\/p>\n
In front of their home fans at the MCG for the first time this summer, the Stars set the Strikers a giant target of 180 to win.<\/p>\n
West Indian import Andre Fletcher, who had headed into tonight's match averaging just 14.62 for the Stars' top order, carried the load for his side in an innings that looked shaky when Marcus Stoinis departed for just 13 from 26 deliveries.<\/p>\n
The right-hander looked a completely different player this time around, blasting 12 boundaries and finishing with an unbeaten 89 from 49 deliveries.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fellow star batsman Glenn Maxwell chipped in with 37 from 28, while Hilton Cartwright finished 30 not out from 17 deliveries to help the Stars to a big first-innings total.<\/p>\n
Needing exactly nine runs per over for victory, it couldn't have gone any worse for the Strikers, who posted a score of 68, their lowest ever in BBL history.<\/p>\n
The Strikers after just five overs were well below the run rate at 2-18.<\/p>\n
All of the work was done by the spinners, with Maxwell claiming 2-12 from his four-over spell and Zahir Khan finishing with 2-19.<\/p>\n
But it was Adam Zampa who was the star among the three spinners, producing his best-ever BBL bowling figures in taking 5-17.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"