Melbourne Stars’ captain Glenn Maxwell’s efforts went in vain against Sydney Sixers in Melbourne after Josh Philippe’s unbeaten 61-ball 99 anchored Sydney to a win by 7 wickets.
Chasing a stiff target of 178 in 20 overs, the Sydney Sixers had a decent start as they put 84 in 10 overs at the loss of only two wickets as Moises Henriques chipped in with some important runs. He scored 29 off 20 deliveries before getting out to Adam Zampa.
Philippe was then joined by Daniel Hughes and the two batters stitched a partnership of 32 runs for the third wicket before the latter was sent back in the hut for a 10-ball 11.
But there were no further fall of wickets as Jordan Silk who came in next along with Philippe steadied the ship for the side and built an unbeaten stand of 66 runs and saw the side home. Silk remained not out for 25 off 19.
Earlier, in the day, the Stars were struggling at 59/3 when Maxwell took the onus on himself and hit his first BBL century to provide the resistance to the side and led them to a total of 177/5 in 20 overs.
Henriques expressed delight after the win but admitted that the side gave away some extra 15-20 runs especially after the start they had got with the ball.
“Very happy. With the start that we had with the ball, we thought they got 15-20 too many. The wicket started to play a lot better after the initial phase. Glenn put on a show which was pretty special. Josh basically replicated that. It was very special to watch. We got away to a better start than them,” he said after the match.