Andre Russell delivered a man-of-the-match performance for the Melbourne Stars against the Sydney Thunder, the team he played for previously, by scoring a rapid unbeaten 42 that drove his current team to an impressive six-wicket victory in the KFC Big Bash League (BBL) on Sunday (December 12).

Russell made his side’s top score from just 21 balls as the Stars recovered from a problematic 83-4 while in pursuit of 151-5 set by the Thunder in their 20 overs.

Russell arrived at the crease to face a hat-trick delivery from spinner Tanveer Sangha, who had just removed Marcus Stoinis and Thunder captain, Glen Maxwell with the second and third balls, respectively, of the 12th over.

The powerful all-rounder enjoyed a crucial bit of luck against the spinner, who could have had his wicket as well when the match-winning player edged a ball onto his foot and the stumps, only for the bails to remain in place.

“The ball hit the stump – like hard…happy to still be batting and have a laugh about it,” Russell said afterwards.

The Jamaican, who opted out of West Indies duties in Pakistan, eventually hit a four and cleared the boundary on five occasions as he and Hilton Cartwright took the fight to the bowlers, scoring 72 from 34 balls to guide the Stars to their target with 17 balls to spare.

Cartwright contributed 23 from 13 balls to the effort as Sangha finished with figures of 2-20.

Earlier, the Thunder owed their total to a middle-order rally led by Alex Ross scored 77 with four fours and four sixes to drag the team from 65-4 in the 12th over after Qais Ahmed (2-17), Brody Couch (2-26) and Maxwell (1-7) had done early damage.

Ross and Daniel Sams together scored 84 from 48 balls before Sams lost his wicket for 22 with one ball remaining.

Russell represented the Sydney Thunder for three seasons ending in 2017 in the Big Bash League.