Chris Lynn shines as Strikers beat Renegades in Melbourne

The Adelaide Strikers have kept themselves in the title hunt this BBL season, beating the Melbourne Renegades by five wickets in Melbourne on Thursday.

Adelaide improve to sixth on the table with the win, level with the Renegades on four points.

Big Bash bookmakers have shortened their odds from $23 to $13 as a result, while lengthening Melbourne’s title chances from $7 to $9.

After being put in the bat first, the Renegades’ were poor outside of a strong effort by Josh Brown at the top of the order, who made 66 runs from 41 balls.

Jacob Bethell (21 from 21) and Will Sutherland (18 from 11) were the only other notable scorers for the home side, with the remainder of the line up falling for single digits as they spluttered to 9/142 from their 20 overs.

Henry Thornton was the pick of the Adelaide bowlers, taking 3/22 from his four overs.

A powerful batting effort from the Strikers’ top order then meant that Thornton’s services with the bat were not required.

Chris Lynn (88 from 51) and D’Arcy Short (27 from 20) shared a brilliant 104-run partnership to open the innings, with the former winning player of the match for his knock.

While five quick wickets fell in a late wobble for Adelaide, they still got over the line with 17 balls remaining.

“It was a little bit of a tricky wicket,” Lynn said afterwards.

“We’re going to take the game on and it worked in my favour tonight.

“In the powerplay in a wicket like this, you have to take the game on.

“We’ve got a couple away matches and yeah, hopefully, continue that form from now.

“We’re going down to Hobart next and it might be flat down there, might be a little bit in it but we’ll soon see.”

With the fourth-placed Hobart Hurricanes up next for the Strikers, they have an opportunity to move into play off contention with a victory.

They will be slight underdogs across cricket bookmakers in Sunday’s match, sitting at $2.02 to win at Bet365.

However, Lynn is confident that Thursday’s win over the Renegades can signify a turning point for his side.
“I like the brand of cricket we’re playing,” he said.

“We’re trying to drive the game.

“The luck of the bounce hasn’t always been out there for us in the season just yet.

“I think the biggest thing for us is just keeping what we’ve done over the last.

“A couple of weeks don’t change the game plan just because you had a couple of tight losses.

“You know, it’s a couple of runs here and there.”

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