Melbourne Stars toppled Sydney Thunder by 10 runs in another successful Border Bash match at the Lavington Sportsground on Tuesday night.
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The Stars compiled 9-162 with the game’s highest-profile player in Kevin Pietersen making 34 from 19 balls.
The Thunder finished on 8-152, with star signing Callum Ferguson (30) forced to retire hurt with a low grade quad strain.
It was a precautionary measure and the classy right-hander will be assessed on Wednesday.
Leg-spinner Adam Zampa won player of the match with 2-17 from four overs.
“We always talk about the one percenters and our fielding, in particular, I thought that was pretty good,” he said.
The Stars’ duo everyone had come to see – Pietersen and Glenn Maxwell – came together at 2-20.
Pietersen was dropped on 11 in the outfield and it proved costly as he hit the game’s first six in the following over, while Maxwell followed suit.
The pair looked capable of tearing the match apart, but Maxwell ran himself out in unusual fashion.
Pietersen was on strike and the ball finished around five metres from the bat but, with no chance of a run, Maxwell took off and was halfway down the wicket when he turned back.
Keeper Jay Lenton fired a superb throw to leave the former Test player short.
It was a waste of a promising innings.
Pietersen then fell with a soft dismissal, bunting the ball back to leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed.
The powerfully-built Marcus Stoinis (32) provided the night’s biggest hit, launching the ball over the coaches’ boxes and out of the ground, requiring a new ball.
Ahmed and Gurinder Sandhu finished with two wickets apiece.
“It was a pretty tough wicket to bat on early I think,” Zampa said.
“Before the ground got dewy, it was quite slow, so to end up getting 162 was quite a decent total.”
The Thunder never really threatened, although captain Shane Watson smashed two sixes from one Scott Boland over, the second landing in the grandstand.