Khawaja starstruck by Fresh Prince moment

He's won an Ashes series, lifted the KFC Big Bash League trophy and struck six Test centuries but Usman Khawaja says doing a Jazzy-Jeff handshake with Will Smith just about tops all of it.

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air star has been in Melbourne to promote his new film Bright and was on hand at the MCG on Saturday evening to watch his first ever cricket game, toss the coin and take selfies and sign autographs for eager fans.

Thunder star @Uz_Khawaja was pretty pumped to get the chance to meet Will Smith at the MCG today! #BBL07 pic.twitter.com/RAHTVjnWSD

— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 20, 2018

The most eager of them all though was Khawaja, who just 24 hours earlier saw Smith at the Australian Open on television and kicked himself he hadn't gone on a free night in Melbourne.

"I saw him (Smith) at the tennis yesterday and I was thinking about going to the tennis," Khawaja explained to cricket.com.au. "I was rooming with Gurinder (Sandhu) and I was like, 'oh man I wish I went to the tennis now'."

Thankfully for Khawaja, his childhood idol had every intention of soaking up another essential Australian summer sporting experience.

"Later on (on Saturday), I heard Will Smith was coming. I was like, no matter what I do, I have to shake his hand," the Sydney Thunder batsman continued.

"So I shook his hand. And then I thought, 'I've got to do that handshake he did in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. I grew up on Fresh Prince of Bel Air’.

"I was like (to Smith), 'can we do the Jazzy-Jeff handshake?' He knew exactly what I was talking about and he did it straightaway.

"It was probably in the top three moments of my life.

"I was like a little kid. I didn’t think I'd get that excited, I've grown up watching Will Smith my whole life. I never ever thought I'd get to meet him. (It was) a dream come true."

It was perhaps a good thing his Thunder skipper Shane Watson called correctly (after Smith's cameo coin toss) and bowled first considering the daze Khawaja was in.

After Melbourne Stars stuttered to 6-147, the elegant left-hander was well-and-truly out of his funk as he and Ashes nemesis turned BBL teammate James Vince combined for a devastating opening stand.

When Khawaja departed in the ninth over having flayed nine boundaries in his 26-ball 44 the Thunder were already 85, leaving Vince (40 off 29) and Watson (49 not out off 28) to do the rest and get the visitors home with 23 balls to spare.

"We could have come out in one of two ways," said Khawaja. "We could have come out and batted normally and just taken our time, or we could take the game to them and take it away from them in the first six (overs).

"And that's exactly what we did."

Typically associated with fluent stroke-making rather than power-hitting, Khawaja continues to be one of the KFC BBL's most devastating batsman. In 23 games for the Thunder, he now has 956 runs at 50.31.

With one game still to play, the Thunder's win on Saturday leaves them just outside the top-four on net run-rate behind fourth-placed Melbourne Renegades. How the Renegades fare in their final three games (with one to come against the Thunder on Wednesday) looms as decisive for the western Sydney club's finals hopes.

One thing working in their favour should they sneak in is their new-look opening union of Khawaja and Vince, Australia and England's respective No.3s in the recent Magellan Ashes campaign.

Khawaja says while there's been no spill over from one of international cricket's fiercest rivalries into the Thunder changerooms, the Australian hasn't been able to resist a couple of healthy digs.

"I throw a few little jabs in there when I'm losing arguments against him," a smiling Khawaja said.

"He sent me that emoji, where it tells you to shush. I (replied with) hashtag #4nil in there somewhere. A low blow by me, but it worked.

"We're both pretty quiet blokes in the field. We didn't have too much to say to each other during the Test matches.

"He's a really good guy, he fits in the team really well. He's got a really cheeky sense of humour, really dry. He's a good guy to have around.

"We play a gentlemen's game, it doesn't matter if he's playing for England. When it's over, we're all mates."

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