The Melbourne Stars broke their four match losing streak by defeating the Adelaide Strikers by six wickets at the MCG
Match Report:
ScorecardMatch Recap: Stars defeat Strikers
Match in a tweet: Stars break four-game losing streak against the Strikers without inspirational skipper Meg Lanning.
The score: Adelaide Strikers 9-94 (Beams 3-12) in 20 overs lost to Melbourne Stars 4-96 (Mack 31 not out) in 16.5 overs by six wickets.
The hero: What a day it was for Stars skipper Kristen Beams! The leg-spinner was handed the captaincy due to a late hamstring injury to Meg Lanning and she inspired her team with a sensational bowling spell of 4-0-3-12. Beams struck in her first over by knocking over Tammy Beaumont to set the trend for her team mates to follow. Beams brought herself back on after the power play and had immediate impact by picking up two wickets in consecutive balls to derail the Strikers' fightback. Apart from her bowling, Beams' field placement and the rotation of her bowlers were spot on.
The support cast: Natalie Sciver's accurate stump-to-stump line bowling proved to be too hot for the Strikers to handle. The right-arm bowler trapped Charlotte Edwards and Tahlia McGrath plumb in front with deliveries that jagged back in towards the stumps. Bowling first change,Sciver contained the scoring rate and also picked up two crucial wickets to finish with figures of 4-0-21-2.
The innings: Katie Mack dropped anchor after a couple of early wickets to ensure the Stars chased down the modest total with relative ease. Mack shared an unbeaten partnership of 40 for the fifth wicket with Anna Lanning (15no), as she struck five boundaries on her way to 31 from 33 balls.
The close shave: We have had just about everything in the WBBL|02 so far, except a hat-trick. But today we can extremely close. Beams took two wickets off the consecutive balls in her third over and for the hat-trick ball she hit the pads again, the umpire stared long and hard but eventually ruled in the batter's favour.
Butter Fingers: The Stars had an off day in the field, dropping three catches and also misfielding a few that led to the Strikers scoring some valuable runs. Luckily for the Stars, the bowlers created enough opportunities to limit the damage and restrict the Strikers to 9-94 in 20 overs.
The injury: The stars received a monumental blow before the match with skipper Meg Lanning ruled out of the match. The news from the Stars camp was that Lanning suffered from hamstring tightness and will be closely monitored over the next couple of days.
The next stop: Both teams will square off again on 13th January at Lilac Hill in Perth.