Twitter Reactions: Marcus Stoinis' unbeaten knock of 147 runs extends winning streak of Melbourne Stars to six games

Hilton Cartwright muscled 59 runs off 40 balls against Sydney Sixers.

By Jasvinder Singh

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Hilton Cartwright muscled 59 runs off 40 balls against Sydney Sixers.
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Marcus Stoinis. (Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images)

Melbourne Stars came face to face against Sydney Sixers in the ongoing Big Bash League. The fans had an expectation of a thrilling encounter when theses two heavyweights locked horns at Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne but that never looked the case.

Both sides are amongst the top two teams in the tournament. However, in the 34th game of BBL, Stars outclassed Sixers with sheer dominance. They also managed to grab two important points that extend their lead to two points in the league table.

After winning the toss, Sixers elected to field but the decision didn’t go the way they had expected in the match. Stars openers Marcus Stoinis and Hilton Cartwright helped their side in getting off to a great start on their home ground. They were smashing the visitors’ bowlers all across the park from the beginning of their innings. Meanwhile, the bowling unit looked quite helpless in front of their merciless hitting.

Melbourne Stars openers guide them to sixth consecutive win in BBL 2019-20

Stoinis and Cartwright stitched a record-breaking partnership of 207 runs for the first wicket. The former played a swashbuckling knock of 147 runs off 79 balls with 13 boundaries and eight massive sixes. Also, it was his first-ever century in the shorter format of the game.

The 30-year-old made the mockery of the Sixers bowlers with his clean hitting. The penultimate over of the innings turned out to be the costliest over of the match when Stonis smashed 24 runs off Ben Dwarshuis. He smashed three sixes, two boundaries and a double.

Later on, Stars successfully managed to post a mammoth target of 219 runs for a loss of one wicket in stipulated 20 overs courtesy to the memorable knock of Marcus Stoinis. Coming onto the chase, Sixers were certainly under pressure of chasing a big target. Moreover, they lost their in-form opener, Josh Philippe, in the first over of the innings. The right-handed opener attempted to smash the full-length delivery for a six off Daniel Worrall but he got a leading edge and was caught by Seb Gotch.

Sixers batsmen looked quite out of touch as they failed to click good knocks with the bat against Melbourne Stars. Moises Henriques and Jordan Silk contributed well but couldn’t manage to pull off a match-winning inning in the game. The former muscled 41 runs off 25 balls with four boundaries and two sixes whereas latter scored 32 runs.

In the lower order, Ben Dwarshuis played a cameo of 42 runs off 17 balls with three boundaries and as many sixes. However, that was not enough for the Sixers to cross the winning line. In the end, visitors’ scored 175 runs for a loss of seven wickets that forced them to suffer a defeat by a margin of 44 runs.

Meanwhile, Stonis was given Man of the Match for his magical knock. In bowling, Clint Hinchliffe turned out to be their best bowler, who registered brilliant bowling figures of 3/20.

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BBL 2023-24Melbourne StarsSydney SixersAustralia