Published 17:50 IST, January 4th 2021
Marcus Stoinis and Johan Botha exchange verbal volleys on pitch during a BBL game
Marcus Stoinis and Johan Botha were involved in a heated exchange during the Big Bash League (BBL) match between Melbourne Stars & Hobart Hurricanes on Monday
Marcus Stoinis might have missed out on a well-deserved century on Monday but he did ensure that he did not back out from exchanging verbal volleys during the Big Bash League (BBL) match between Melbourne Stars and Hobart Hurricanes at the Blundstone Arena on Monday.
'Didn't really see coming!'
The incident happened during the 11th over of the first innings. When Stoinis was changing ends to get back to the strikers' end, he and veteran South African all-rounder Johan Botha, who had just completed his second over were spotted something to each other and while it is unknown what the conversation really was, both of them were looking serious while exchanging words and even when Botha was walking back to his fielding position, Stoinis kept on saying something to him after which he also smiled probably looking at the wicket-keeper behind him.
The video of the same was posted by the Big Bash League on their official Twitter handle and it was captioned as 'Marcus Stoinis VS Johan Botha is the rivalry we didn't really see coming!'
Luckily, nothing untoward happened as the match progressed smoothly.
Melbourne Stars register a much-needed win
Hobart Hurricanes skipper Peter Handscomb won the toss and decided to chase. His move seemed to have paid off after the Stars were reduced to 49/3. However, opener Marcus Stoinis had other ideas as he carried out the rescue act by playing an anchor's role to perfection. The Perth cricketer scored an unbeaten 97 off 55 deliveries at a strike rate of 176.36 including seven boundaries and the same number of maximums as the Melbourne franchise finished their innings at 183/6 in their 20 overs.
In reply, wicket-keeper batsman Ben McDermott held on to one end when wickets tumbled from the other during Hobart's challenging run chase, and just when it appeared that the opener would end up scoring a match-winning century, his innings was cut short for a quickfire 58-ball 91 when Andre Fletcher took a blinder to send him back to the dugout.
Ben's wicket arguably was the turning point and it opened up the floodgates for MLS. The middle and lower-order could not do anything special for the Hurricanes as Glenn Maxwell & Co. registered a narrow win by 10 runs.
By the virtue of this win, the runners-up of the previous edition have now moved up to the fourth spot in the points table with three wins from seven matches and 15 points in their tally.
Updated 17:50 IST, January 4th 2021