Stoinis, Stars triumph despite McDermott magic

The match in a tweet: Mighty Marcus! Ben the beast! Stoinis clobbers 97 not out, McDermott 91 in a masterclass of T20 batting while the Spiceman takes two ridiculous catches #BB10

The score: Melbourne Stars 6-183 (Stoinis 97no, Ellis 3-31; Meredith 2-25) defeated Hobart Hurricanes 6-173 (McDermott 91; Rainbird 2-22) by 10 runs

The points: Stars 4, Hurricanes 0

The hero: Marcus Stoinis, take a bow. The powerful right-hander has had a mixed start to BBL|10 but once he sent his first ball into the crowd for six you knew he was on for a big one. It was a damaging display no matter which way you cut it, muscling seven sixes and as many fours. Twice he deposited spinner D'Arcy Short over the rope in the 12th over to bring up his half-century from 37 balls and by the 20th over he'd moved to 79. Stoinis hit four of the first five balls for four but Scott Boland produced an excellent yorker that cruelled any chance of a magic century. While the runs were fun, the spicy back-and-forth with Johan Botha was equally entertaining.

The consolation effort: Ben McDermott kept the 'Canes in the hunt for an unlikely win with a powerful innings of his own. As the asking rate climbed so did McDermott's intensity, bludgeoning the Stars bowlers to all parts of Blundstone Arena. Swinging the bat like major leaguer, McDermott drilled 13 boundaries, five of them sixes, to keep the buzzing, if reduced, crowd on the edge of their seats (or the grass of the hill). He looked set to post his second BBL hundred and possibly drag his side to victory but having been deprived of the strike late in the innings he picked out a diving Andre Fletcher on the cover rope to fall nine short of three figures.

The cameo: Hilton Cartwright put on 56 with Stoinis in 34 balls and scored 36 of them. He struck three big sixes, including this dismissive shot.

The bowler: Playing on his home turf in Hobart, Sam Rainbird was perhaps the difference in the game with 2-22 from four overs. The Tasmanian removed Hurricanes danger man D'Arcy Short then dismissed Tim David in the 18th over. Tremendous effort from the left-armer.

The surges: Melbourne scored 1-26 (overs 13 & 14), while Hobart amassed 1-35 (overs 16 & 17).

The catches: THE SPICEMAN! TWICE!

The crowd catching: "Atrocious", as described by Shane Warne. The Stars hit 11 sixes and The Hurricanes nine and not one looked like being caught.

The stat: Dawid Malan brought up 6000 T20 runs with a straight six off Liam Hatcher. That's a lot of runs.

The next stops: The Hurricanes head west to Perth to take on the Thunder on Thursday, January 7, while the Stars head north to the Gold Coast to face the Heat on Thursday night. 

Melbourne Stars XI: Andre Fletcher, Marcus Stoinis, Nick Larkin, Glenn Maxwell (c), Nicholas Pooran, Hilton Cartwright, Seb Gotch (wk), Adam Zampa, Liam Hatcher, Sam Rainbird, Billy Stanlake

Hobart Hurricanes XI: D'Arcy Short, Ben McDermott (wk), Dawid Malan, Peter Handscomb (c), Colin Ingram, Tim David, Johan Botha, Nathan Ellis, Scott Boland, Riley Meredith, Sandeep Lamichhane