England opener Joe Clarke scored a fourth consecutive half-century as the Melbourne Stars edged out the Adelaide Strikers at the MCG on Monday night.
The Stars are priced at 9/2 to reach the BBL11 final and claimed a crucial victory over the Strikers when chasing down the 140 runs needed with five balls to spare.
Unbelievable knock
The Stars had won the toss and elected to bowl first, reducing the Strikers to 9-139 before Clarke stepped up to guide them home with an impressive 83-run knock.
Clarke's tally included four big sixes, but just as impressive was the way he kept his nerve as wickets were tumbling around him.
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After a slow start to his Stars career Clarke has really found his form and stand-in skipper Adam Zampa had nothing but praise for the batsman after the game.
"Obviously you've seen the class now - he struggled early in the tournament, but we knew he had it in him," he told Channel Seven.
"We've seen it in the nets and his record is unbelievable. I think he strikes at 160 in T20 cricket opening the batting, so he's class."
Big win
Meanwhile Zampa was delighted to pick up the win to get their campaign back on track following back-to-back defeats against the Perth Scorchers and Melbourne Renegades.
They have also not played for a week with a number of players falling sick.
"It's been a long time coming for us, obviously it's been a very interesting couple of weeks, it's great to be back out here though and obviously great to finish the night with the win," he added.
