Melbourne Renegades were in absolute doldrums in front of their home crowd at the half way stage of their innings. Had it not been for the veteran duo of Tom Cooper and Daniel Christian, Renegades would have struggled to reach a respectable score. Struggling at 65 for the loss of half the side, the duo joined hands and stitched an unbeaten partnership of 80 runs. With no recognized batsman coming after them, they played with caution during the most part of their innings. They were able to give their bowlers something to bowl for.
Earlier in the day, both Finch and Harris looked good during the start of the innings but they started loosing wickets at regular intervals. The run out of the skipper, Aaron Finch was a big blow to the Renegades. The wrist spin duo of Sandeep Lamichhane and Adam Zampa proved very economical for the Stars as they only gave away 37 runs in their eight overs taking two wickets.
Chasing a total of 146 runs, Melbourne Stars started on a positive note and kept finding boundaries at regular intervals with ease. Been Dunk and Marcus Stoinis looked to be in full control of the game and it looked like Stars will finally lift the title for the first time after reaching the knockout stages as many as six times.
Needing just 53 runs from 43 deliveries, one would have thought that the job was almost done for the Melbourne Stars but the implosion occurred and stars lost a shuddering 7 wickets for just 19 runs. The game suddenly shifted in favour of Melbourne Renegades in a matter of few overs. Melbourne Stars went into a deep heap and made it impossible to get out of that. Adam Zampa hit a couple of lusty blows in the last over but that was not enough as Stars fell short by 13 runs.
Credit must be given to the bowlers of Melbourne Renegades as they kept hitting the right areas on a slowish pitch and reaped rewards towards the end of the innings. Cameron Boyce took the first wicket of Stoinis who tried to loft him over the ropes but could only hear the stumps being rattled. Been Dunk perished in an attempt to keep up with the asking rate giving Boyce his second. The others came in and went back causing little trouble to the scorers.
This was the first ever BBL title for Melbourne Renegades.
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