BBL04: Melbourne Stars secure Super Over win over Sydney Sixers

Melbourne Stars kept their Big Bash League hopes alive with a dramatic Super Over victory after their day-night clash with Sydney Sixers at the MCG finished tied.

James Faulkner, promoted up the order to open from five, struck two sixes off Brett Lee as the Stars posted 19-0 off their six extra balls before John Hastings restricted the Sixers to just 9-2 in only the second Super Over decider in Big Bash history.

The drama came after Kevin Pietersen struck 54 off 43 balls to propel the Stars to 150-4 in reply to the Sixers 150-6, which featured Michael Lumb’s 80 off 60 balls.

Lumb smashed three sixes off Faulkner in the third over of their regular innings after Nic Maddinson had departed cheaply, skying a return catch to Jackson Bird.

The Sixers lost two more cheap wickets to extravagant shots to slip to 53-2 - Riki Wessels edging John Hastings to slip and Moises Henriques snicking Scott Boland behind - before Lumb and Jordan Silk (37no) added 69 for the fourth wicket in just over 10 overs.

Lumb posted his fifty off 32 balls by edging Boland to the third man rope but the Sixers didn’t pick up a boundary for another six overs as the Stars rotated their attack to good effect.

The Nottinghamshire batsman fell in the 17th over looking to move the score on, lofting Boland high to Cameron White at mid-on as he attempted to hit off-side.

The Sixers looked unlikely to post 150 when Sean Abbott followed Ryan Carters back to the pavilion but Silk struck Hastings for 14 off the final five balls of the innings, including a six over square leg, to get his team up to a par-total.

The Stars lost Luke Wright early in their chase when the Sussex all-rounder chopped Lee onto to his leg-stump to go for a first-ball duck but Pietersen was soon into his stride with consecutive boundaries off Doug Bollinger.

Pietersen picked up a boundary in each of the next four overs – and launched Abbott for his first maximum over long on, adding 70 for the second wicket with Cameron White, who struck 24 before being bowled by Ben Dwarshuis on the pull.

Pietersen brought up his 50 with a cut four behind point but 56 runs were still needed off 38 balls when he attempted to pull Bollinger and skied a catch to wicketkeeper Carters.

That put the onus on Maxwell, who picked up his first four with a one-bounce switch-hit off Steve O’Keefe, to finish the match but after heaving Dwarshuis to the midwicket rope he attempted to pull the following ball and chipped it to Henriques.

The Stars needed 16 runs off the final over, bowled by Lee, to win and came within a single of their goal as Tom Triffitt (25no) and man-of-the-match Faulkner (17no) collected three boundaries between them.

Watch Adelaide Strikers take on Perth Scorchers in the next instalment of the Big Bash League, live from 8am on Sky Sports 3 on Tuesday.