BBL14: Perth Scorchers to chase against Melbourne Stars in Optus Stadium season opener

Luckless Perth Scorchers speedster Jhye Richardson has sent a timely reminder of his class, taking three wickets to help restrict the Melbourne Stars to only 9-146 in the BBL season opener at Optus Stadium on Sunday.

Sent into the field, the Scorchers’ continued to add to their reputation as the competition’s most miserly bowling outfit, with Richardson the pick of the bowlers with 3-19 off four overs.

The Stars were unable to establish any solid foundation, losing 2-13 in the powerplay and 2-14 in the power surge despite electing to bowl.

Some late fireworks from English recruit Sam Curran (37 runs off 19 ball including three sixes) and a solid knock by skipper Marcus Stoinos (37 off 33) ensured the visitors were able to post a somewhat competitive total.

But the Stars never got on top of the Scorchers’ incredible bowling outfit for long.

The home side were near perfect early with Jason Behrendorff bowling an immaculate length that the Stars couldn’t get away.

Richardson capitalised on the build up of pressure at the other end, knicking off former Perth teammate Joe Clarke for a nine-ball duck before trapping first-drop Sam Harper in front for one.

It left the visitors reeling and if not for a late pair of boundaries from Stars opener Tom Rogers (14 off 15) the score would’ve looked a lot worse than 2-13 at the end of the powerplay.

Rogers and Stoinis began to resurrect the Stars’ innings but a gamble from Scorchers’ captain Ashton Turner paid off when the former reverse swept Cooper Connolly to deep point.

Stoinis began to put together what was a strong captain’s knock to resurrect his team’s innings, blasting friend Ashton Agar into the second tier with a monster six in an early highlight.

As he looked settled though he made a horror mistake in the power surge when he took on Andrew Tye at mid-on, only for the veteran bowler to hit the stumps with the Stars skipper well short of his ground.

It kept getting worse for the Stars with Hilton Cartwright (18 off 17) blasting a six off Agar only to go for one to many and sky the ball to mid-off the next ball.

Curran and Beau Webster threatened to change the momentum of the match, but Richardson returned into the attack with success, using the short ball to get latter caught behind.

The English all-rounder continued to throw the bat as he tried to push the score past 150, but he came undone by the pace of Lance Morris (2-30 off four overs) who finally got a ball on target after a wayward innings.