Wednesday, 22 January 2020:
 | | PETER SIDDLE | |
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Adelaide have survived a late whirlwind from Peter Handscomb to jump to second on the BBL ladder with an 11-run home victory over the Melbourne Stars.
Former Test paceman Peter Siddle (career-best 4-33) held his nerve in the face of some last-ditch pyrotechnics from acting captain Handscomb (65 not out from 39 balls) as the Strikers, defending 4-162, held the Stars to 8-151 at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday night.
With their third successive win and second from as many matches against the Stars, Adelaide boosted their chances of securing the double-chance, leapfrogging the Sydney Sixers on the table.
Handscomb batted magnificently but lacked support after the Stars slumped to 2-26 when they lost both openers in the powerplay.
Phil Salt took a magnificent running outfield catch to send tournament leading run-scorer Marcus Stoinis (5) packing before fellow opener Nic Maddinson (7) was skittled by Rashid Khan.
When Nick Larkin and the dangerous Glenn Maxwell both departed for 19 the visitors were 4-63.
With 53 still required off the last three overs, the Stars needed a miracle - which the valiant Handscomb very nearly provided.
"We saw in their (Adelaide) innings, they back-ended it really well and I thought we could potentially do the same," Handscomb said.
"I was backing us in to get close, which we did, but we left our run a bit late."
Earlier, the Strikers were floundering at 3-57 at the halfway stage as the Stars employed spin for all but five overs before late-innings specialist Jon Wells came to the rescue with an unbeaten 55 from 36 deliveries.
With his fourth half-century of the summer, player-of-the-match Wells lifted his season aggregate to 406 runs at 81.20.
He combined with Matt Short (23 not out) for 68 unbroken for the fifth wicket for the Strikers who crucially slugged 105 from their last 10 overs.
Left-arm tweaker Clint Hinchliffe bagged the Strikers' three big guns - Alex Carey (33), Jake Weatherald (15) and Head (5) - to record a career-best 3-19 before Wells changed the complexion of the match.
"We took wickets pretty regularly early and had them on the back foot when we got the two big wickets of Stoinis and Maxwell," Wells said.
"We knew if we could do that, we'd be in a pretty good position."
