MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 10: Glenn Maxwell of the Stars looks on during the Big Bash League match between the Melbourne Renegades and the Melbourne Stars at Marvel Stadium on January 10, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
The Melbourne Stars were the runaway minor premiers of the BBL in 2019/20 but that means very little when it gets to the finals.
In fact, the old adage that it's a new game once you make the finals has never been truer than in the BBL with the Sydney Sixers claiming a 43 run victory at the MCG.
Heading into the finals, the Stars lost three games straight, while the Sydney Sixers slid into second with three straight wins.
The Sixers batted first and despite an odd time of it at the crease, the side crawled to 7/142 after losing 5/32.
While it looked like the Stars were in the box seat, the Melbournians capitulated, crashing to the franchises' lowest ever score as it was bowled out for 99 in the 19th over.
WICKET | That's all folks! The Melbourne Stars have been bowled out for their lowest ever BBL score, 99. The @SixersBBL will host the #BBL09 Final.
It put the magenta men in the box seat with first being the worst in the competition with the BBL curse for the minor premiers seeing the top team losing the final in seven of nine seasons.
It was also the lowest score defended in a BBL final for the Sixers.
Luckily for the Stars, they are still alive with the top two getting a second chance in BBL09 and will face the winner of Saturday's match between the Adelaide Strikers and the Sydney Thunder.
The Stars collapsed yet again, capitulating to lose the first six wickets for 55 in 10.3 overs when Glenn Maxwell went back to the pavilion.
The Stars have made the curse even worse with their finals record, winning just two from 10 finals matches so far.
Former Melbourne Stars skipper Shane Warne unloaded on the performances.
"They haven't played for a week, remember they said we're resting players, we're changing our batting orders and they've lost three games in a row. They come and play one game in the last week and now they've got six days before they play another game when it's all about what went wrong again, why are we doing this in finals and all those questions," Warne said.
"The only way they can do it is to win a game. Otherwise you're going to have to keep facing those questions because that's fact, it's not someone trying to be nasty or anything like that, we just put up the facts. Last year in the final, you lost 7/19 against Finchy's mob, what do you call that? That's a choke. 53 runs off 43 balls with 10 wickets in hand. You should in them 95-96 times out of 100."
Vince juggles and catches Maxwell at long off! Stars look set to lose their fourth in a row, #BBL09 final and celebrity bushfire fundraiser to be played at the SCG
Shane Warne’s having a real crack at Melbourne Stars’ record in finals. Won 2, lost 7. “Facts are facts.†Haven’t heard him mention he was captain for three of those seasons. #BBL09
Warne continued the tirade as the wickets continued to fall.
“Peter Handscomb had a go at me when I said it was all about the Melbourne Stars, who are in the final, can their big men stand up and he had a go at me because he thought I was being unfair,” Warne said.
“The problem is in the last eight years of the Big Bash this is exactly what has happened every year, bar one,” he continued, referencing the fact the Stars have reached the finals eight times but are yet to win a BBL trophy.
“Once again they are not handling the pressure of a final. This is ordinary. It has been ordinary cricket and they haven’t handled the pressure again in a final. So Peter Handscomb, you can have a go at me as much as you like but facts are facts.”
“All the questions for me are about the Melbourne Stars,” Warne said in commentary ahead of the first ball of the match."
Updates
Sixers collapse in BBL decimation
At 2/94 in the 12th over, it looked like the Sydney Sixers were cruising towards a big win.
But after setting the platform, the Sixers fell apart.
The last 51 balls went without a boundary, while the Sixers lost 5/32 in the next 38 balls.
They ended up 7/142, much less than they would have expected.
It was an odd night with Steve Smith surviving a bizarre almost hit wicket when the wind picked up, while Moises Henriques was caught at fine leg after a ramp shot.
Adam Zampa took the catch after backtracking out of the circle as the ball was bowled.
It's the same issue that led to the Alex Hales furore last night with Zampa clearly checking out the other matches and taking pointers.
Daniel Hughes was also stumped off a leg side wide.
Disbelief over freak Smith oddity
Steve Smith evaded a brutal bouncer from Haris Rauf and was perplexed when the bails were dislodged.
It was an odd moment with Smith nowhere near the bails.
Shane Warne thought Smith may have stepped on the wicket as Glenn Maxwell and his charges celebrated.
"I have no idea what's happening here," Aaron Finch said.
The umpires sent it upstair but Smith was miles away from the stumps as the bails just fell off.
"Strange coincidence," Mark Howard said.
Warne was stunned after a summer of bails not falling off.
"We've seen over the summer the ball hit the stumps so many times and the bails don't come off, this time there's a gust of wind and the bails fall off," he said. "What about the timing of it, can't believe it."
Aren't those Zinger bails meant to be too heavy? 🤔
A gust of wind teased the @StarsBBL, who thought they'd snared the wicket of Steve Smith!
Australian cricketer Glenn Maxwell has described Melbourne Stars teammate Haris Rauf as an absolute superstar, and says the Pakistan bowler’s emergence is the story of the BBL season.
Rauf has enjoyed a sensational breakthrough campaign after being plucked from grade cricket in Tasmania at the start of the season when the Stars were searching for a stop-gap measure to cover injured spearhead Dale Steyn on a short-term basis.
The speedster has since become one of the best bowlers in the BBL, earning his international debut in Pakistan’s Twenty20 series against Bangladesh in Lahore last week.
Rauf has now returned to the Stars ahead of their BBL qualifier against the Sydney Sixers on Friday night, and Maxwell expects the 26-year-old to be available for the crucial clash at the MCG.
Rauf’s return is a welcome boost for Melbourne, who have lost three matches on the spin despite topping the table at the end of the regular season.
“There’s no limit to what he (Rauf) can do, he’s an absolute superstar,” Maxwell told SEN. “We probably didn’t quite get as much out of him as we could have.
“Because of the slight language barrier he can probably sometimes miss a few things, but he has still performed unbelievably well.
“He was an absolute entertainment machine and people love coming to watch that.
“The story of him coming from club cricket into Pakistan’s eyes was absolutely outstanding and probably the story of the BBL tournament.”
Maxwell has also heaped praise on Stars teammate Marcus Stoinis, who has collected the golden cap after scoring 607 runs at a strike rate of 134.29 and an average of 60.70.
Stoinis, 30, hasn’t represented Australia since the World Cup last July, but is in contention for a return to the international fold.
“The sky is the limit if he (Stoinis) keeps going the way he is.
“He’s dominating games single-handedly at the moment. If he can do that in red-ball cricket, he’ll be a hell of a proposition for the Australian Test side.” – AAP
