Haris Rauf missed his chance of becoming the second bowler to take two hat-tricks in BBL history despite Peter Siddle-led Adelaide Strikers losing three wickets off consecutive deliveries in the final over.
Melbourne Stars’ stand-in skipper Adam Zampa handed the ball to Pakistan speedster to bowl the final over of the innings. After three singles off the first three deliveries, Rauf got the wicket of Harry Nielsen as the batter missed the line and ended up getting bowled. His second wicket was Strikers’ skipper Siddle who also got bowled trying to play a slog off the penultimate delivery. Rauf was on a hat-trick against the no.10 batter Harry Conway but he managed to get his bat on a fast 146.8 kmph delivery. Conway and Rashid Khan tried to get a couple of runs but Conway got run out after a good through from Joe Clarke in the deep.
Rauf finished with two wickets for 25 runs in his quota of four overs. He bowled a brilliant final over conceding just four singles. Also, he kept cameo-specialist Rashid at bay. Strikers could manage to post only 139/8. Only Jonathan Wells made a mark with a 56-ball 68 in the middle order.
The economical last over came into play as Strikers bowlers kept the game alive till death overs. Opener Clarke did the heavy lifting as an inexperienced Stars top order collapsed. With Beau Webster struggling to find gaps or hit boundaries, Clarke led the way for Stars with his 58-ball 83 laced with three fours and four sixes. With his wicket in the penultimate over, the game was still alive.
However, Qais Ahmad was cool as a cucumber as he hit a six on the first ball of the final over. It was the very first ball he faced in the innings. It was followed by a wide delivery which gave Stars a win by five wickets with five balls to spare.
With this win, Stars moved from the bottom of the table to register their fourth win of the season. On the other hand, Strikers moved to the bottom with just two wins from 10 games.
