3 minute read
Lloyd Pope rebounded from a traumatic last BBL over to help the Adelaide Strikes defeat the winless Melbourne Stars at Adelaide Oval.
Leg spinner Lloyd Pope earned redemption and late inclusion D'Arcy Short starred, as the Adelaide Strikers beat early season strugglers Melbourne Stars by 15 runs at Adelaide Oval in the BBL.
Short (60 off 42) wasn't scheduled to play but was called up on Friday after a calf niggle sidelined Chris Lynn.
The only meaningful support for Short came from Alex Ross (35 off 26), as the Strikers made 6-165 in their first home match of the campaign, before the Stars responded with 9-150.
Opener Sam Harper (48 off 44) kept the Stars in the game, but noted big hitters Marcus Stoinis (27 off 19) and Glenn Maxwell (15 off 5) produced blistering cameos rather than a major innings.
The Stars slumped to 0-3, while Adelaide improved to 1-1.
Adelaide's spin trio took four of the first five wickets and six all up, with Pope (3-21 off 4) spearheading their attack.
Pope showed great resilience after suffering the indignity of leaking 31 runs in a match-tilting over in the Strikers first game loss to the Thunder in Canberra on Tuesday.
He took the key wicket of Harper and was well backed up by fellow legspinner Cameron Boyce (1-31 off 4) and captain and finger spinner Matt Short (2-23 off 3).
Maxwell, who played his first BBL game of the season, threatened to take control of the match, after reverse sweeps for six off his second and third balls off Boyce.
But excellent paceman Henry Thornton (2-16 off 4) trapped the big-hitter lbw, backing up his spin trio superbly.
The game also produced one of the best catches in BBL history, with Englishman Ben Duckett taking a wonderful leaping right-handed snare at extra cover to dismiss D'Arcy Short.
That was the sole highlight of Duckett's night as the hard-hitting opener was trapped lbw for a golden duck off the third ball of the innings bowled by Matthew Short.
All bar two of D'Arcy Short's first 28 runs came from boundaries, with a six and five fours.
The Strikers' England batter Ollie Pope made just eight off 10 balls before being caught behind off a poor attempted ramp.
