The Melbourne Renegades paid the full price for giving Meg Lanning a life.
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Lanning steered the Melbourne Stars to victory and further into contention for pole position on the WBBL table with a matchwinning 73 not out from 58 balls.
But the champion batter could have been in the sheds for 27 if it wasn’t for a costly drop by Deandra Dottin.
Lanning slashed at a wide delivery from Sarah Coyte and it flew to the waiting Renegade at backward point.
Dottin dropped it and the chance to sink the Stars with two wickets in as many balls either side of the drinks break.
Lanning, with Amy Jones (43 off 33) and Annabel Sutherland (27 off 16), helped the Stars to 5-160.
The Stars themselves dropped an early opportunity, with Georgia Prestwidge giving Dottin a second chance of her own first ball of the second innings.
Dottin loomed as the danger player in the run chase but consistent wickets ensured the Stars a 45-run victory.
The Stars, which won just two games last season, went to equal points on the table with the ladder-leading Hobart Hurricanes.
Adding to the Stars’ remarkable revival, they were well ahead of the net run rate when rain abandoned one of their games earlier in the season.
It was the Renegades’ third loss in four games, keeping the door ajar for the Sydney Sixers to potentially sneak into the top four when they meet next week.
BANG, BANG ‘BELLS’
For a moment, it looked like Annabel Sutherland was teeing up on the golf course.
Sutherland shifted the Stars’ innings up a gear at the start of the 17th over when she belted Sarah Coyte for a pair of successive sixes.
The first was straight down the ground, or perhaps the fairway, directly over the head of Coyte and between the two boundary riders.
The second, an early Christmas present in the form of a full toss, was a little more leg-side but was still struck with a glorious swing.
Sutherland’s brace of brilliant blows made her dismissal, a failed reverse sweep, the more peculiar.
Stars move to second in WBBL | 00:53
GOLDEN GLOVES
A sharp piece of work from wicketkeeper Nicole Faltum offered the Melbourne Renegades some needed relief.
The Melbourne Stars had raced to 1-76 in the 10th over through Amy Jones and Meg Lanning before Faltum dismissed the former in style.
Jones crept out of her crease ever-so-slightly off the bowling of Georgia Wareham but it was enough for Faltum to whip the bails off.
The pair had put on 62 after the early wicket of Rhys McKenna and were only a matter of balls away from taking the power surge with momentum.
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