Renegades snatch BBL title after Stars' epic collapse

It was horrid, Finch has three fielders in the deep waiting for it.

Spot on.Maxwell should have learned from Christian's inning in the semi final.You need to take the game as deep as possible.Maxwell is touted as a special one and he has loads of experience in t20 cricket.You expect Maxwell to deliver in such situations.And if you can't score 47 off 30,then what's so special about Maxwell?This is not really surprising for me.He has hardly ever won a game in a pressure situation for Australia.He always throws his wicket away when the team really needs him and he has plenty of supporters to give excuses for him.

Except that you also stated that Handscomb was entitled to take risks because the team was in a strong position and there was plenty of batting to follow him. There was only one batsmen left who could reliably be trusted to score runs. I wouldn’t call that “lots of batting left.” It also means that not only is the bulk of responsibility on him, but he also has to be on strike when the bad balls are bowled. No guarantee of that happening even if he does do everything else right. Maxwell didn’t have a lot of choice left at that stage. It’s not like the top order was run through with brilliant bowling, they all got themselves out at the worst possible time with dumb shots. Blame them before anyone else.

Maxwell needed 9 an over. The game was getting out of hand. Runs had dried up.

With Two Melbourne sides in the final, most non-Victorians normally would not care which team wins. BUT when one of those two sides is ARROGANT enough to call themselves a team of (so-called) "STARS" , neutral folk automatically cheer for the other side. (Esp. when Collingwobble Eddie is president or whatever)! So when this team of so-called "STARS" CHOKED as badly as they did (esp. after the start that Dunk gave them), please pardon the rest of the Aussie cricket-following public for cheering wildly in our homes when the Stars(??) fell to earth so rapidly !! Well done Renegades !!

"The bloke who comes in when the team is cruising and has absolutely no reason to take any risks is apparently entitled to take risks and get off scot-free if he fails? Yet the bloke who is present as the last recognised run-scorer and needs to hit at 9.5 an over needs to restrain himself?" You're almost there. But at no point did I say Handscomb should get off scot-free. I repeated several times that it was a terrible shot. Would you like me to repeat it one more time for you? Here you go: Handscomb hit a terrible shot. Having said that, top orders often do collapse. You do realise this, don't you? That's why the middle order should be adaptable enough to take stock of the situation and play appropriately. While Maxwell was still there the Stars were in with a chance. When he threw his wicket away he threw away his team's chances. He's the captain. I make no apology for holding him to a higher standard than his team-mates. Particularly as he's regarded as one of the world's premier short-form players.

In the end they won by 13 runs. One decent over a little earlier from the Stars and they would have won comfortably. If the Renegades knew what they were doing they would have got a wicket well before the Stars reached 90 runs.

Handscomb scored 193 off 150 for the season. Those two top scores make for 105 off 61. That means his remaining 6 innings produced 88 off 89. That’s a bog average season by any stretch of the means. This is completely backwards. The bloke who comes in when the team is cruising and has absolutely no reason to take any risks is apparently entitled to take risks and get off scot-free if he fails? Yet the bloke who is present as the last recognised run-scorer and needs to hit at 9.5 an over needs to restrain himself? You can’t score that quickly without taking risks. If that shot comes off it’s brilliant, just like all the times balls land one bounce short of the fieldsman or fly just out of their reach. Calling Maxwell’s shot irresponsible while hand-waving any responsibility Handscomb has is ludicrous. Again, if the top 3 don’t get themselves out with poor shots, there’s no collapse or recovery needed.

His last innings was 35 off 26... "I really don’t understand how a bloke trying to accelerate to halt a deteriorating situation is poor match awareness, but a bloke immediately getting himself out slogging when he has no need to isn’t." To repeat - there was plenty of batting to come after Handscomb. Therefore, entitled (to a degree) to take risks, particularly when the team is in such a strong position. Whereas (as you pointed out) there's not much batting to come after Maxwell. Therefore he (particularly as captain) could and should have played very differently. He's got the talent to, but sometimes I think he plays the same way regardless of what state the game is in. Not what I would expect from an experienced, capable leader in a situation like that. I don't know what's so hard to understand about this...

That’s a pretty good summary of the match. I’ve noticed that people have failed to mention how the Stars were generally on par with the Renegades’ run accumulation despite losing no wickets vs being 5 down.

I don’t know what Stars matches you’ve been watching, but Handscomb has been awful this season apart from his first-up 70. He’s scored 123 runs at just over a run a ball his other 8 innings. No, but Handscomb (and the rest of the top 3) playing that shot when he did is the reason they got in trouble. When Maxwell played his shot, the Stars needed 47 off 30 and the only other bloke he could have relied on to score runs had already thrown his wicket away. His shot was poorly executed but it was a risk that needed to be taken at that stage. I really don’t understand how a bloke trying to accelerate to halt a deteriorating situation is poor match awareness, but a bloke immediately getting himself out slogging when he has no need to isn’t.

No it doesn't. When Handscomb came in the Stars were cruising. And if you look at the way he's played for the Stars this season it's generally been at a cracking pace. To repeat, the shot that got him out was terrible. But the team wasn't in trouble at the time. Maxwell's shot was equally poor, but I would argue was a much sillier dismissal due to the state of the game and his role as captain.

Maxwell was super in the last H&W game and played an ideal innings in the semi. The shot he played wasn't absolutely horrid - not like trying to hit to the longest boundary (Dunk) or trying a reverse out of the blue (Finch on Friday) or skipping down the wicket to a quick (Handscomb). But - it's T20 - don't judge individuals too harshly. It's always great when it comes off.

The Stars found it hard to accelerate. Note that the 'Gades lost 4 wickets early (Finch was a bit flukey) - but they were hustling - at 2-47 off 5.5 overs it was going okay until Finch got snookered. Harvey then had no idea with the spinners and when it was 4-49 off 7.1 with 2 new batters - that was major worries. The Stars were 0-29 off 4 and flying but 7 off the next two lefth the Stars 36 off the power play; it felt as though they were batting within themselves and the acceleration was about to come. As it was, Gades 4-50 off 45 balls vs Stars 0-50 off 46 balls. And when Boyce conceded a 6 in each of his first 2 overs it felt as though that was happening as per the Stars script. Boyce wasn't happy against the leftie in Dunk. And at that point I really felt the lack of a 2nd spinner would be the undoing. Stoinis was leaving it to Dunk to be the aggressor. After Richardson went for 12 in the 12th over - it seemed hope lost. Stars had just added 39 off 26 balls going at 150% SR. Boyce began his 3rd over in the 13th and the RR was overs at 7.41 and the RRqd was 7.12, but 4 off 5 balls and Stoinis finally attempted a big shot - and out. The best chance of dot balls was going to be via wickets and getting new batters out there. Handscomb was an astounding shot - should've been chasing a single to get Dunk back on strike. The nature of T20s is in the back end the run rate req'd climbs quickly. 1-4 off the 13th and it was back to 7.57 and 1-2 off the 14th (Tremain) and suddenly it's up to 8.5 an over. The 15th over then became massive. Boyce bowling his last over. And it felt that the moment was missed by a smidge when White grassed a great effort to get Maxwell. A dot ball still though, and only 1 off 3. 3 off the next 2 but then Dunk was the key wicket - attempting to hit to the longest boundary - or just got it too straight - when he went suddenly 2 new batters out there. And the run rate required suddenly 9.4 That put the pressure right back on Maxwell - and Maddinson coming in had precious little to feel optimistic about based on his form to date. With Maxwell out, and still 2 new batters and only 1-2 off the 16th over - suddenly 45 off 24 was a very big ask. It was astounding. Over 12 went for 12. The next four overs saw 4-12. From 0-89 to 4-101. To me - the Dunk option given he was set was a poor shot selection. And Stoinis, had seemed to lack urgency for periods of the game and 39 off 38 with the wickets in the shed they had just seemed as though he'd been coasting. For the Gades - that 19th over of their innings taking 17 off Worrall, that was massive and Cooper who couldn't hit Bravo the over before - managed to finish with a six in each of the last 2 to make his numbers look pretty good.

So Handscomb playing an extremely poor and unnecessary shot when the team only needs 7 an over, which started the collapse in the first place, doesn’t reflect on his own ability to read the state of play? Three blokes had just gotten themselves out unnecessarily and the run rate had jumped to 9 an over. Maxwell’s shot was poor but the dumb top order had put the situation beyond just running singles.

OMGoodness.. A little bit of sensible batting was impossible to deliver? These batsmen want to smash everything they see, no wonder our long form batting skills are under scrutiny.

Not sure one innings will solely impact his International career though! Three of his last four BBL innings prior included 61, 82 and 43 n.o

It speaks to his ability to sense the state of play in a game. While Handscomb's shot was terrible, his team was not in trouble at the time - and he's not the captain. For Maxwell to play the shot he did at that point in the game (as captain) was just awful. Neither team was impressive to be honest. Renegades were just a little less poor than the Stars.

Maxwell has been judged on being rash with his shot making. Particularly under pressure. When his team needed him to steady the ship he gets out swinging

They may not have "engineered the victory" as you say but they didn't exactly do a Steven Bradbury either. They didn't take a lot of wickets early but they didn't bowl a lot of bad balls.