Adelaide Strikers cruised to victory against the Melbourne Stars on Friday by restricting their rivals XX runs short of the 165-run target at the Adelaide Oval. D’Arcy Short was the star of the show with a 42-ball 60 before Lloyd Poipe ran through the batting order to end with dreamy figures of 3/21 from his four overs. The wrist-spinner opened his account in the 12th over with the scalp of the newly arrived Hilton Cartwright and while the batter was left hapless against the South Australian, a certain Michael Hussey saw it all coming from a mile away.
Cartwright’s first interaction with his comaptriot came on the second ball where he easily tucked a back of a length delivery for a single before regaining the strike two deliveries later. Just as Pope was beginning his run-up, Hussey predicted the leggie could do by dropping the ball short and use his google to great effect. Much to the amazement of Hussey’s co-commentators Adam Gilchrist and Michael Howard, that is exactly how things played out.
Running in from wide of the crease, Pope angled the delivery in the channel and Cartwright took the invitation to charge down the deck. However, excitement quickly turned to horror for the veteran as the Kookaburra darted back in instead of turning away to pierce the huge gap between bat and pad before thumping into the stumps.
Pope was ecstatic, but not as much as the commentators as the trio shook hands and back slaps amidst fits of laughters to celebrate Hussey’s immaculate knowledge of the game, proving he is labelled Mr. Cricket for a reason.
