BBL: Henriques stars as Sydney Sixers beat Melbourne Renegades

The Sydney Sixers got their BBL campaign off to a winning start on Monday night at the SCG, defeating the Melbourne Renegades by five wickets.

The Sixers entered their opening game as $1.73 favourites with Big Bash betting sites, yet the Renegades ($2.13) got off to a flying start in Sydney.

Sent in to bat first, Melbourne motored along at 10 runs per over for the first eight overs.

Wickets fell steadily though, with Jake Fraser-McGurk (21 from 12), Josh Brown (22 from 10) and Mackenzie Harvey (11 from 8) falling in the third, sixth and ninth overs respectively.

But wicketkeeper Tim Seifert (55 from 42) stuck around, batting through to the 17th over with company from Will Sutherland (36 from 28) after a clump of wickets fell mid-match.

Melbourne would ultimately scratch their way to a middling total of 7/169, giving themselves a chance but by no means putting the game out of Sydney’s reach.

In response, the Sixers lost Josh Philippe (5 from 5) early before James Vince (40 from 29) and Jack Edwards (37 from 28) combined for a handy 62-run partnership.

Both fell after the halfway point of the chase, but Moises Henriques (53 from 27) then stepped up to the plate to play a match-winning innings.

There was no consistent partner for Henriques at the other end, but his strike rate of almost two runs per ball meant that did not matter.

Eventually he found company from Ben Dwarshuis (14 from 6), who struck two boundaries from the penultimate over to win the match with nine balls to spare as Sydney ended on 5/172.

“We’ve had a lot of success, but the first game is often nerve-wracking,” Henriques said after winning the player of the match award.

“Glad we bowled well. Thought they were 10-15 runs short, but glad we got through.

“I was trying to play it down in the Surge as we needed 34 off 24 and I took it, watched the ball hard and hit it hard.”

Next up for the Sixers is an all-Sydney affair against the Thunder on Saturday, December 21.

Cricket bookmakers are yet to release odds for the match, which will be influenced by how the Thunder perform in their opening clash against the Adelaide Strikers on Tuesday evening.

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