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The Renegades belted their crosstown rivals the Stars by six wickets last night at the MCG. Here are my five main takeaways.
1. Renegades brush aside Stars
The Melbourne Renegades stormed to the top of the BBL7 table with a dominant six-wicket victory over the Melbourne Stars at the MCG last night.
A quickfire 43 from captain Aaron Finch and an inspired 52 from 30 balls from surprise No.4 Mohammad Nabi helped the Renegades ease past the Stars moderate total of 4/157 in the 18th over.
The loss drops the Stars to 0-4, and they are now odds on to miss the finals for the first time in their history.
2. Balance of power shifting in Melbourne
Through much of the first six seasons of the BBL the Stars have owned the Renegades, however the balance of power appears to be shifting in a big way.
The Stars have often resembled the poorer, younger brother in Melbourne, with the Stars regularly recruiting bigger names and having made the finals in each of the six seasons.
The Renegades have now won two of their past three games against the Stars, after losing eight from the first ten games against the their crosstown rivals.
While the Stars appear certain to miss the finals, the Renegades look like the best team in the competition after five games, having won four of them by hefty margins, and their only defeat being a narrow one.
3. Death bowling for Renegades outstanding
The Renegades have missed the finals in the past three seasons largely because of their inability to strangle opposition batting sides at the latter end of the season.
However in BBL7 to date, they may well be the best performed death bowling outfit in the competition.
The Renegades executed their plans really well to limit Maxwell and Stoinis to just three boundaries in the final seven overs.
While several teams have chopped and changed their bowling outfits and combinations throughout the tournament, the Renegades’ five bowlers have played every game, and this attack can carry them a long way in this competition.
4. Nabi the all-rounder
Mohammad Nabi showed his all-round talents last night by blitzing the Stars’ bowling attack with a sparkling half-century that blew the Stars away.
The game was still in the balance somewhat when Nabi entered the crease at No.4, after the departure of Aaron Finch, after batting only once so far in the tournament from No.8.
With the Renegades 2/72 after eight overs in chase of 158 for victory, Nabi belted Adam Zampa for two sixes in one over, and allowed Cameron White to play in second gear throughout his innings.
Nabi has bowled outstandingly in BBL7 – despite only picking up five wickets in five games, he has the overall figures of 5/104 from 18 overs, and is going at just 5.77 runs per over.
5. Stars fail to finish
There was a little more enterprise in the Stars’ batting last night, however the innings petered out badly.
After three single-figure scores, Ben Dunk found some form with 47, while Kevin Pietersen came out in an ultra aggressive mode scoring 40 before he was dismissed.
The Stars had a great platform to launch from at 1/82 after 10 overs and from there should really have scored 170 plus, considering the batting talent they had in the shed, but once again they failed to find the boundary and failed to break the shackles.
The fact they only lost four wickets but managed just 157 shows the lack of confidence this side are playing with at the moment, as the clock approaches midnight on their season.
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