Jason Roy's half-century and an even spread of contributors with the ball has seen Perth Scorchers surge to the top of the BBL table with an 11-run win over Melbourne Stars.
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Roy (54 off 32) and Colin Munro (46 not out) did the heavy lifting with the bat as the Scorchers posted 4-182 after being sent in at the MCG on Saturday night.
In reply, the Stars struggled early and were always behind in the chase despite Nick Larkin's classy 70 off 44 in a total of 6-171.
The result leaves the Stars relying on other results going their way to remain in finals contention ahead of their last regular season match, against Sydney Sixers on Tuesday.
But the Scorchers have now won eight of their last nine matches to stamp themselves as the form team of the competition.
They clinched the bonus point against the Stars and a superior net run rate sees them move into top spot ahead of the Sixers, who have a game in hand.
Roy famously blasted a record-breaking 180 from 151 balls to lead England to an ODI win over Australia at the MCG two years ago and adopted a similarly aggressive mindset from the start against the Stars.
He did the bulk of the scoring as the Scorchers registered 0-42 from their opening power play and whacked a quarter of the balls he faced to the boundary before Munro took the reins.
Liam Livingstone (24), Josh Inglis (26) and Ashton Turner (18 not out) also pitched in for the Scorchers as well-credentialed Stars duo Nathan Coulter-Nile (1-49) and Adam Zampa (1-48) were hit for big tallies.
"Any night where you walk away with four points is a good night and I thought our batting was brilliant," Scorchers captain Turner said.
"We played as well as we have with the bat throughout the whole tournament.
"The load was spread amongst all of our batters, everyone played nicely and a lot of the time they're the most satisfying nights, when we have a lot of contributors."
Andrew Tye (2-28) was the pick of the Scorchers' bowlers, removing the dangerous Coulter-Nile and bringing an end to Larkin's impressive knock, while also claiming two catches.
Turner's fielding was also a highlight as he took superb catches to dismiss Glenn Maxwell and Coulter-Nile.
Larkin was the only Stars batsman who made a significant contribution as Marcus Stoinis (14), Seb Gotch (18), Maxwell (1) and Nic Maddinson (18) all fell relatively cheaply.
"Our batting was sub-par again and we've got to do something about that pretty quickly," Stars coach David Hussey said.
"We're in desperate stakes now; we're relying on other teams to win and we have to win our last game or we're out of the competition.
"For such a proud club, that would be a very disappointing result."
The Scorchers meet Brisbane Heat in Adelaide on Tuesday, hours before the Stars and Sixers wrap up the regular season.
Australian Associated Press
