Big Bash 2021: Sydney Sixers Vs Melbourne Stars, all-time farce, reaction, Glenn Maxwell, Stephen O’Keefe
3 min read
The opening match of the Big Bash League season has been a diabolical disaster for the Melbourne Stars as records were crushed.
The Melbourne Stars have suffered the biggest loss in the history of the BBL to kick off the eleventh season of the competition with a whimper.
Facing the might of back-to-back defending champions the Sydney Sixers, it was hard to believe the teams were playing on the same pitch.
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The Sixers started perfectly with the bat, hammering 4/213 on the back of an incredible 83 off 47 from Josh Philippe and 76 not out from 38 balls in the Sixers’ biggest ever total.
But any hope the Stars would make a game of it were quickly crushed as the Sixers slumped to 9/47 in just 8.4 overs.
While tailenders Brody Crouch and Syed Faridoun chipped in with eight and six not out respectively, all it did was help the Stars avoid the complete humiliation of the lowest score of all-time.
The Stars were bowled out for 61 off 11.1 overs, only the third lowest score of all time and easily the Melbourne side’s lowest ever score. Its previous worst was 99.
The 152-run loss is the biggest in the history of the Big Bash and was utter humiliation for the Stars as the side didn’t turn up for the season opener.
“That is horrendous batting,” Brett Lee said in Fox Cricket commentary after Adam Zampa was stumped to leave the Stars nine down.
“It’s just not good enough, it’s alright to get beat but you’ve got to show some fight don’t you,” Waugh agreed. “Unfortunately for the Stars tonight, none of them are showing any fight.”
When the match was mercifully over, Waugh continued to say it was a “pretty lame performance”.
Sixers spinner Stephen O’Keefe too 4/14 from his four overs as the pick of the bowlers but all the bowlers dominated the Stars.
The reaction was swift and brutal reading if you were a Stars fan.
Stars skipper Glenn Maxwell said it was far from the ideal start to the competition for the side.
It was a brutal night for the side after Marcus Stoinis withdrew before play with a side strain and several other stars were unavailable.
“We lost by 152 runs – it wasn’t a great night,” Maxwell said.
“I thought he actually did really well with the inexperienced bowling line-up.
“We were at the last minute scraping for emergencies and had a lot of injuries … it sort of just put us behind probably where we’d like to be for round one, but you can’t win the tournament from round one.
“So we’re glad that that’s done now – we can probably put that behind us and move on to round two.
“Our batting group missed a really good opportunity to get themselves in the tournament and get some runs under their belt.
“They’re a superstar side the Sixers, and we probably needed all our big guns to take them.”
