BBL 2019-20 | Melbourne Derby In A Jiffy - Stars shine through Glenn Maxwell’s madness as darkness of eighth straight defeat engulfs Renegades

Sritama Panda

BySritama Panda, SportsCafe Editor

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In sport, Derby(s) are a display of sheer, passion, heat and the bigness of rivalry but in the game between the Melbourne Renegades and the Melbourne Stars, the former stood no chance against the latter. With eight straight loss, the hosts still remain at the lowest position in the table.

Match Review in a tweet

Renegades, without the services of captain Aaron Finch, have successfully crashed their hopes of making it to the qualifiers with a winless run despite Shaun Marsh’s heroics. Melbourne Stars captain Glenn Maxwell smashed an unbeaten 31-ball 41 to hand his team their seventh win.

Match Report in a minute 

Similar jerseys, similar fate, the Renegades have translated the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s form from the IPL 2019 season and translated into their BBL 09 run. Carrying on their BBL 09 form, the Renegades made sure they show some promise in the beginning and glimpses of it throughout only to fail in the end. Remember the RCB team in the previous edition of the IPL? They even had a tied game in the tournament, only to lose in the Super Over. Now the Renegades, hosts in this game, have lost all eight games in this season of the Big Bash. With every defeat, chances of them to finally win a game looks grim and that kind of kills the competition, the T20 spirit. 

While Shaun Marsh (63 off 43) and Marcus Harris (42 off 32) gave the best possible start to the Renegades, batting first, the rest of the batting line-up failed badly. The hosts went on to set a total of 168/7 at the end of 20 overs, after being on 146/2 at 16 overs. In response to this, the Stars had a relatively slow start, with the sparks of Hilton Cartwright’s batting, and finally,  skipper Maxwell’s unbeaten 41 helped them remain table toppers with seven wins out of eight matches.

What the teams didn’t learn

You just don’t expect your field to be safe with Samit Patel installed somewhere in it. And the Renegades, who excitingly roped in the England all-rounder of Vitality Blast fame had to face the consequences. After Patel was able to dismiss Marcus Stoinis for a duck in the first over of Stars’ innings, it was the new recruit’s fielding that cost the Renegades a wicket in the third over. Patel at point dropped a sitter that gave Ben Dunk another life and denied frustrated Joe Mennie a crucial dismissal. 

Oh, Renegades! Oh, dear, Renegades! A target of 169 will never be enough when the chasing team has a finisher like Glenn Maxwell. An innings started gloriously with the touch of Shaun Marsh, despite losing the toss at home, had the hosts struggling with the bat after the two openers fell. Stand-in captain Dan Christian promoted himself to No.4 only to contribute 12 off 10, and the rest of the batting line-up just fell apart. The last five overs only added 32 runs and that shows how bad their hitting abilities are. They badly need to recognize the missing element that has cost them so many games.

What I learnt 

Not just me, individually, but I’m sure the Renegades, too, must have learned that the veteran batsman Shaun Marsh is best suited at the opening position. I mean, the elder Marsh was brought in as a replacement of Cameron White - a finisher. While we have seen the incompetent calibre of the middle and lower order of the Renegades, it signifies why Shaun Marsh is best suited up there. A genuine opener, Marsh can bat to the best of his abilities at the top, especially for the team that’s without a specialist finisher. What the Renegades need right now is Marsh right up there and whatever happens, follows that momentum. 

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