BBL 2019-20: Challenger, Melbourne Stars vs Sydney Thunder – Thunder’s first defeat in BBL finals, Stoinis' record season, Stars' winning streak over Thunder and more stats

Melbourne Stars put a break to the Sydney Thunder’s campaign after defeating them in the Challenger by 28 runs on Thursday. Marcus Stoinis’ 54-ball 83 and an unbeaten 83 off 49 deliveries by Nick Larkin powered the home team to finish with 194/2 in their 20 overs.

Thunder lost their top three inside the powerplay but Alex Ross, with a 38-ball 58, tried for a mission impossible. However, Adam Zampa’s double-wicket 17th over pulled off the last string in the chase. The Thunder eventually finished with 166/8 in their 20 overs.

All the statistical highlights from the Melbourne Stars’ victory over the Sydney Thunder in the Challenger:

The first defeat for Thunder in finals:

1 – Sydney Thunder lost a game in the finals round for the first time in the history of Big Bash League. They qualified to the finals in the 2015/16 round where they won the semis and the finale. In the ongoing edition, they won the Eliminator and the Knock-out before losing the Challenger.

Yet another win for the Stars over Thunder:

4 – Melbourne Stars won all the four BBL matches they played against the Sydney Thunder since the start of 2019. Stars now lead the head to head record against Thunder in the BBL by 7-6.

Marcus Stoinis breaks D’Arcy Short’s record:

695 – The 695 runs aggregated by Marcus Stoinis thus far are the most by any player in a BBL season. He went past D’Arcy Short’s 637 runs scored during the 2018-19 season with his 83-run knock against Thunder.

7 – Stoinis has recorded seven fifty-plus scores in this season including a record 147* which makes him the first player with seven 50+ scores in a BBL edition. D’Arcy Short and Matthew Wade had six 50+ scores apiece in 2018-19 while Alex Hales also scored six fifties in this season.

Marcus Stoinis joins Alex Hales in a rare list:

3 – Marcus Stoinis became only the 2nd player to smash three fifties against an opponent in a Big Bash season. He scored fifty in all the three matches in this tournament. Earlier in this edition, Alex Hales got half-centuries in all three matches played against the Hobart Hurricanes.

Stoinis has aggregated 191 runs against them in this season which are the 2nd most runs scored by a player against an opponent in a BBL season. Stoinis himself scored 214 against the Sydney Sixers whom he will face in the final on Saturday.

Stoinis and Zampa on the top of Stars’ charts:

1721 – Marcus Stoinis is now the highest run-getter in the BBL matches for the Melbourne Stars. He went past Glenn Maxwell (1697) during his 83-run knock in the Challenger.

51 – Adam Zampa is now the leading wicket-taker in Big Bash League for the Melbourne Stars as he went past John Hastings’ tally of 50 wickets. Zampa had 49 wickets to his credit before the Challenger where he picked up two wickets. Hastings and Zampa are the only players with 50 BBL wickets for the Stars.

Big tournament for Morris and Haris:

22 – Number of wickets for Chris Morris in this tournament; the joint-most by an overseas bowler in an edition of BBL. He equalled Tom Curran’s record of 22 wickets which he picked up in this edition. Only Daniel Sams (30 in 2019-20) and Kane Richardson (24 in 2018-19) claimed more wickets than Morris in an edition of BBL.

20 – Haris Rauf’s 20 wickets in this edition are the joint-most by any player in their maiden BBL tournament. Tom Curran also claimed 20 wickets during the 2018-19 edition which was his first appearance in the BBL. Rauf’s 20 wickets are also the most by an Asian in a BBL edition going past Rashid Khan’s 19 wickets in this season.

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