Usman Khawaja gets the perfect chance to shine for Sydney Thunder against Melbourne Stars

The BBL umpires have come under fire after the slew of rule changes left three of the competition's biggest names furious. 

The three men that would find themselves unlucky.

The Melbourne Stars have claimed a perfect eight points to start the season with a 22-run win over the Sydney Thunder at Canberra's Manuka Oval.

The Stars batted first and got off to a blinding start with Marcus Stoinis making up for his second ball duck with a 37-ball 61.

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But his teammates left the door open losing 4/15 in the last 17 balls having previously been on track for a 200+ score, only managing 8/169.

The Thunder never seemed to get going after Usman Khawaja was dismissed for seven off seven balls early, in a controversial decision.

In fact, it was the third controversial decision of the afternoon with the commentators calling for the Decision Review System to be brought into the BBL.

It started when the Stars' Andre Fletcher was dismissed by 19-year-old debutant Tanveer Sangha.

Drawing Fletcher forward, the ball rapt him on the pads and the umps finger went straight up. But Fletcher was far from happy, looking for a review despite none being in the BBL.

It turns out he was right to question the call as it was sliding down leg side.

Glenn Maxwell was the next one with Chris Green getting the Stars skipper bowling around the wicket and seemingly pitching down leg side.

You could argue that Maxy wasn't in the greatest position.

Then Khawaja went to ramp Dilbar Hussain, going right across but the ball missed the bat, flicking the pad with the lack of a DRS meaning he needed to walk.

Khawaja was far from happy with Mark Waugh saying "I don't think that hit anything" after watching the reverse angle replay.

Adam Gilchrist added: "Looked like there was a lot of daylight between bat and ball there, yards of it."

Mark Howard asked if there should be a DRS review in the BBL, with both legends agreeing there should be.

"I think there should be, I think we've seen three bad decisions today," Waugh said. "I think we should take less time looking at boundary decisions, I think that (wickets) is more important, make sure we get that right."

Gilchrist added: "We don't want to see the biggest names in this tournament, having to leave due to errors that could very quickly be overturned. The technology is around now. Get rid of the time out as far as I'm concerned, that's a waste, we don't need it, get the DRS in and utilise it to make sure we get the decisions correct."

He said the DRS was bought in "for the howler".

The pair didn't lay the criticism on the umpires with the benefit of the replay showing why the call was wrong.

All those gimmicks but no DRS in @BBL?! Both Andre Fletcher and Glenn Maxwell were given out lbw wrongly. #BBL10

— Hemant Brar (@Cricquest) December 12, 2020

Yeah, that's not bad..

— Brett McKay (@BMcSport) December 12, 2020

Absolute howler. Another case made for needing DRS in the @BBL . Daylight between @Uz_Khawaja and that ball.. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ @ThunderBBL

— Erin Holland (@erinvholland) December 12, 2020

I'm not big on bringing DRS into BBL but I think we've just seen a strong argument in favour.

— Rick Eyre on cricket (@rickeyrecricket) December 12, 2020

Yes yes yes agree with the commentators: we need at least one review in the BBL! We waste time looking at other things. #BBL10

— Chloe-Amanda Bailey (@ChloeAmandaB) December 12, 2020

Despite 46 off 41 balls from Alex Hales and 54 off 34 balls for Callum Ferguson, the Thunder didn't have enough firepower at the death, slumping to 9/147 with both former development player Liam Hartcher and Adam Zampa taking two wickets in two balls each.

Zampa was incredible, taking 2/10 off his four overs.