West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell’s three wickets were not enough as his Melbourne Stars suffered their second straight loss, a 24-run defeat at the hands of the Hobart Hurricanes in their Australian Big Bash encounter at the Bellerive Oval.

Winning the toss and choosing to bat first, the Hurricanes romped to 180 for six with opener Ben McDermott top-scoring with 67 off 43 balls and captain Matthew Wade chipping in with 39 from 27 balls.

Russell was expensive at the start of his spell but pulled it back to finish with figures of 3-48 from his four overs.

Australian Nathan Coulter-Nile took 2 for 22 from his four overs.

Russell’s Stars were then limited to 156 for nine off their 20 overs despite Joe Clarke’s 52 and Hilton Cartwright’s 26 with Russell managing only 12.

Pacers Riley Meredith and Tom Rogers each took three wickets for the Hurricanes.

With three defeats in their first five outings, the Stars are now one from the bottom of the eight-team standings on seven points, while Hurricanes now lie third on ten points, seven adrift of leaders Perth Scorchers.