The Melbourne Renegades have kept their BBL finals hopes alive with a thrilling four-wicket win over rivals the Melbourne Stars on Sunday.
But they had to survive an epic Stars fightback to claim the Melbourne Mace, after the hosts took 4-21 in the space of four overs to turn the match on its head at the MCG.
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The Gades were sitting in a match-wining position off the back of Josh Brown’s 84 off 48 balls but when he fell in the 15th over, the drama ramped up.
But with the newly implemented Melbourne Mace on the line, skipper Will Sutherland stood tall in the final over with his side needing 13 off the final over – and he got them home with one ball to spare.
In a dramatic second-last over Ollie Peake obliterated a six, then ran two on a skied ball that was somehow dropped by Tom Curran with Mike Hussey quipping “has he just dropped the mace?!”, before being run out trying for a second a ball later.
Marcus Stoinis gave himself the ball for the final over but was hit for six by Sutherland to open it, with the Gades then taking a pair of singles to require three runs off the final two balls.
Sutherland then ensured there’d be no final-ball drama with another six to win it.
Earlier, a brilliant 18-ball knock from English import Tom Curran lifted the Melbourne Stars to a competitive 9-173.
The Stars had been in deep trouble at 5-80 in 11th over of the Melbourne derby before Curran (38) and Hilton Cartwright (28 off 19) went on the attack.
The men in green piled on 93 runs in the last 54 balls to give their attack something to defend at the MCG.
Sam Harper couldn’t continue his red-hot form in the Melbourne derby, with the BBL’s leading run scorer the first man to go.
Fellow Stars opener Tom Harper (15 of 13) fell moments later – again to a sharp Fraser-McGurk chance to leave the former ladder leaders 2-42.
It was the big wicket of Glenn Maxwell (1 off 4) that firmly turned the match in the ‘Gades favour.
“He couldn’t help himself. Couple of dot balls – thought I’m going to have to hit a six here,” Mike Hussey said of Maxwell’s wicket.
“Nowhere near the middle of the bat.”
The Stars were 4-55 when Maxwell departed and it only got worse for the men in green as Marcus Stoinis (16 off 14) followed.
The Stars skipper, who had only been dismissed once this BBL heading into the derby, could not believe his luck as he miscued his ramp shot and found Josh Brown in the field.
“He was just trying to ramp it over the wicketkeeper’s head. He got it off the inside edge of the bat,” Mike Hussey added.
“Certainly is a bizarre dismissal.
“Brown couldn’t believe it
“Such an important dismissal.
“Two big fish gone… Renegades right on top in this contest.”
The late Cartwright and Curran flurry ensured the Stars reached 9-173.
But it wasn’t enough.
The four-wicket loss is now the Stars’ second consecutive after their blistering December saw the Melbourne outfit sit top of the table.
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STARS SET UP QUESTIONED
The Stars have been in great form this BBL series, only losing one game leading into the Melbourne derby.
But their dominance has been so great, their tail has been starved of opportunity – and when Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis failed on Sunday the Stars looked vulnerable.
Only some late big hitting from English import Tom Curran (38 off 18) lifted the side to a defendable score.
Former Aussie star Shane Watson believes the Stars batting order needs amending moving forward this summer – particularly the role of skipper Stoinis.
“He’s coming in at number 6,” Antohny Hudson said.
“And when the team’s under pressure as well,” Shane Watson replied.
“We know how good a player he is.
“His scores… Marcus Stoinis’ scores – 62 off 31, 32 off 22 and then the previous game against Brisbane Heat 43 off 35 – I’ve got no idea why he’s batting at number six.
“He should be batting at number three!
“Because he’s in great touch, he’s desperate. He’s a leader.
“He wants to lead from the front. I’m not sure why they are making this much more complicated.”
Stoinis had only been dismissed once this BBL heading into Sunday’s match.
MASSIVE CROWD TURNS UP
It was billed as a new-look rivalry between the two Melbourne Big Bash outfits.
And with the Melbourne Mace introduced for the victor, there was plenty on the line.
With Victorian cricket fans starved of action after the two-day Boxing Day Test, the crowd turned out in droves on Sunday.
A whopping 68,124 headed to the MCG for Sunday’s contest – making it the third highest Big Bash crowd of all time.
That’s behind only the Stars v Renegades contests of 15/16 (80,883) and 16/17 (71,162).
“For all the families who could have budgeted in their yearly budget around going to the Test match for a few days… they’ve had some surplus cash and we’ve seen this come to the fore tonight haven’t we,” Shane Watson said of the crowd.
The 68,000 figure is much higher than the 41,205 who turned out for this game last year and the 40,636 from the year prior.
MATCH CENTRE: Stars vs Renegades live score, stats
Melbourne Stars’ 14-man squad: Hilton Cartwright, Tom Curran, Sam Hain, Sam Harper, Liam Hatcher, Campbell Kellaway, Glenn Maxwell, Blake Macdonald, Hamish McKenzie, Haris Rauf, Tom Rogers, Peter Siddle, Marcus Stoinis (c), Mitch Swepson
Melbourne Renegades’ 14-man squad: Jason Behrendorff, Josh Brown, Harry Dixon, Sam Elliott, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Hassan Khan, Ollie Peake, Muhammad Rizwan, Gurinder Sandhu, Tim Seifert, Matthew Spoors, Callum Stow, Will Sutherland (c), Andrew Tye
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