In the 45th match of the Big Bash League 2019-20, Sydney Sixers’ captain Moises Henriques played a six studded innings which helped his side end the 8 match winning streak of the Melbourne Stars.
Henriques helped his team set up their 21 runs victory as he and English player James Vince managed to make a record partnership of 114 runs for 3rd wicket in the BBL. The match was cut down to 14 overs for each team after the rain hit the ground.
Henriques scored 72 off just 31 balls and Vince scored 41 off just 22 balls helped their side to reach 143/3 and beat Melbourne Stars who only scored 125/5 with Marcus Stoinis scoring 62 off 37 and Hilton Cartwright scored 21 off 10 balls.
The match was underway when at 3.1 over the rain started pouring down and the match could only be resumed after 54 minutes with innings cut short to 14 overs per side. The powerplay was also cut down to 4 over from 6 overs, and the removal of tactical timeout altogether. After Sixers managed to put up the colossal score of 143/4 after 14 overs, thanks to DLS (Duckworth–Lewis–Stern) the scored was pushed to 147.
Sixers’ skipper rained sixes in the innings, so much so that his first 8 boundaries were all sixes. With 6 overs less to be played now, Henriques wasted no time as he bashed the Stars’ bowlers in all directions. He helped his team reach 50 runs in just 24 ball with less than 30 minutes into the innings.
When time came for Melbourne Stars’ to bat, Marcus Stoinis came to their rescue, and scored yet another half century. He took Nathan Lyon for the worst as he hits 2 consecutive boundaries in the 8th over and then again 2 sixes in 3 balls in the 12th over. He bought out his 50 in just 34 deliveries but was later caught by Henriques in the same 12th over which was being bowled by Lyon as he looked for a hat-trick of sixes.
The win was much needed by the Sixers as they lost 2 of the last 3 matches they played in this edition of KFC BBL, James Vince, however hitting just 2 sixes and 1 four, played his part perfectly in helping his captain taking the charge.
In all of the 9 seasons of BBL, it is yet to see a Sixers’ player to score triple figure in a match, the highest score ever was reached by Josh Philippe (86).
Melbourne Stars did not have their key players in the line-up, as both Peter Handscomb, and Adam Zampa were out of playing XI, they will be back for Stars’ next fixture against Adelaide Strikers in Adelaide.
Talking about Sixers, they will be joined
back by their heavy hitter Steve Smith, who scored 131 off 132 deliveries in
the decider match of 3 match ODI series against India.
Read (India Vs Australia article here)
Playing XI of Melbourne Stars: Sebastian Gotch (WK), Glenn Maxwell (C), Sandeep Lamichhane, Hilton Cartwright, Daniel Worrall, Marcus Stoinis, Lance Morris, Jonathan Merlo, Nic Maddinson, Nick Larkin, and Clint Hinchliffe.Playing XI of Sydney Sixers: Josh Philippe (WK), Moises Henriques (C), Daniel Hughes, Steve O’Keefe, Justin Avendano, Jordan Silk, James Vince, Nathan Lyon, Tom Curran, Jackson Bird, and Ben Dwarshuis.