Malan hits 75 from 56 deliveries for Hobart in their Big Bash win over Melbourne Stars; in-form England batsman strikes seven fours and three sixes as Hurricanes secure a fifth win in seven games this season
England’s Dawid Malan scored his first Big Bash League fifty as Hobart Hurricanes beat Melbourne Stars by 21 runs despite an onslaught from Glenn Maxwell.
Malan – the top-ranked batsman in the world in T20 international cricket – struck 75 from 56 deliveries in his third innings for Hurricanes as his side posted 164-5 at Bellerive Oval.
The 33-year-old, who had made scores of 15 and 39 in his first two innings of the season, hit three sixes and seven fours on Saturday and reached his half-century from 32 balls.
Stars were reduced to 40-3 inside six overs of the chase, only for Maxwell (70 off 37) to swing the game in the Melbourne side’s favour with five sixes and six fours – one of his maximums, off D’Arcy Short, securing him a 28-ball half-century in a 72-run stand with Nicholas Pooran.
Stars were 107-3 at the start of the 13th over, needing only 58 runs from 48 balls, but Pooran (14) was dismissed four balls later by Scott Boland (3-25) and Maxwell then holed out off Johan Botha (1-18) at the start of the 14th.
Stars limped with the bat thereafter, managing only two fours and 31 runs in their final seven overs, as the Stars attack, led by Boland and Nathan Ellis (2-11 from four overs), limited them to 143-9.
Boland was named Player of the Match but Malan’s knock was also key in Hurricanes’ fifth win in seven Big Bash matches.
The left-hander’s knock continued a series of good recent displays by the English contingent with the bat, with Alex Hales having dazzled twice this week for Sydney Thunder, Jason Roy returning to form for Perth Scorchers and Phil Salt passing fifty for Adelaide Strikers.
