Pietersen hammers as Stars enjoy their first BBL win

Former England star Kevin Pietersen lit up the entire Etihad Stadium in Melbourne with astronomical hitting against Melbourne Renegades on Friday. Vintage Pietersen scored 74 off 46 balls which included 4 fours and 5 humungous sixes.

New Delhi: Former England star Kevin Pietersen lit up the entire Etihad Stadium in Melbourne with astronomical hitting against Melbourne Renegades on Friday. Vintage Pietersen scored 74 off 46 balls which included 4 fours and 5 humungous sixes.

 

@kp24 lits up #Melbourne pic.twitter.com/UP59NkndPR

— Sanket Jadhav (@SANKET13) January 12, 2018

After winning the toss Gades elected to bowl. They almost had the perfect start to their campaign when they dismissed Ben Dunk for a duck in the third ball of the match. But Pietersen, who was initially cautious, adjusted to the pitch. After getting his eye in, the 37-year-old smacked the ball all over the ground. Combining with Peter Handscomb (41 off 37 balls), Pietersen built a 110-run partnership.

A brilliant cameo by Glenn Maxwell (31 off 16 balls) towards the end helped Stars post 4-167 at the end of their 20 overs.

While batting Gades went off to a bad start. After losing both their openers for 24, Gades failed to recover. They slumped to 56 for 4 in the 10th over. Wickets kept tumbling for Gades throughout the match and at the end they could only manage 144-9, falling short by 23 runs.

This was the first victory of the tournament for the Melbourne Stars and particularly impressive given the absence of Australian one-day international representatives Adam Zampa and Marcus Stoinis.