The Perth Scorchers moved into second place in the Big Bash League on Wednesday night thanks to an eight-run win over the Melbourne Stars at the MCG.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, the Scorchers were eventually dismissed for just 136 from their 20 overs, with South African opener Herschelle Gibbs putting on 69 off 48.
In reply the Stars batsmen always looked to be struggling in the run chase, eventually limping to 5-128 from their 20 overs and they now look unlikely to make the finals after losing three of their opening four games.
Gibbs was on the offensive early on, taking to the Stars attack with abandon.
He dominated the strike early in the Scorchers dig as skipper Marcus North was relegated to a spectator for much of the first five overs.
North was dropped on two in the fifth over, when George Bailey failed to grasp a difficult chance off Clint McKay, but the Stars had their revenge in the next over when North (5 off 7 balls) was bowled by seamer Jackson Bird with 46 runs on the board.
From there the wickets fell at regular intervals, with Simon Katich (10 off 8) caught by Cameron White off David Hussey, Shane Warne snared Gibbs and when the leg-spinner repeated the dose to remove Mitch Marsh (31 off 28) the brakes were on the Scorchers dig.
Perth could put on just 28 runs from the final 40 balls, and the final over descended into chaos as they lost five wickets, three of them run-outs.
James Faulkner was the best of the Stars bowlers, with 3-17 from his four overs, Warne chipped in with 2-30 while Hussey and Bird took one wicket each.
In reply, Stars opener Rob Quiney looked to get after the Scorchers bowlers early and was the beneficiary of some good fortune when he was twice dropped at cover by the usually reliable Paul Collingwood.
Quiney was not receiving much support from his fellow batsmen, with White (1 off 10), Bailey (1 off 5) and Hussey (4 off 6) all out cheaply.
When Quiney was caught by Katich off the bowling of Nathan Coulter-Nile for 39 off 34 the Stars were in dire straits at 4-53.
Matthew Wade and Luke Wright began to nudge the run-rate in an upward direction, putting on 62 for the fifth wicket, but when Wright (16 off 19) was run out by Coulter-Nile attempting an ambitious second run off Ben Edmondson the Scorchers were as good as home.
Needing 17 runs from the final over, Wade (53 not out off 43) and James Faulkner (4 not out off 3) could manage only eight.
Coulter-Nile was the pick of the Perth bowlers, taking 2-20 off his four overs, while Edmondson and Marsh took one apiece.
