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Melbourne Renegades end Brisbane Heat’s BBL title defence

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Melbourne Renegades Knock out Brisbane Heat
The Brisbane Heat will not defend their title in the 2024-25 BBL, with last year’s champions missing out on the playoffs after losing to the Melbourne Renegades on Saturday night.

Pre-season, the Heat had been third-favourite to win the trophy, paying $6.50 across Big Bash bookmakers, behind the Perth Scorchers ($4.50) and Sydney Sixers ($5).

But a three-wicket loss to Melbourne at the Docklands Stadium in their final match of the regular season means that they will finish seventh on the BBL table, three spots shy of the post-season cutoff.

Brisbane Heat began well in Saturday’s match, putting on 62 runs for the opening wicket courtesy of Nathan McSweeney (29 from 26) and Jack Wood (45 from 27).

The latter shared a 63-run partnership for the second wicket alongside Matt Renshaw (40 from 22) as well, taking the Heat to 2/125 after 12 overs.

However, tight bowling by Callum Stow and Adam Zampa in the middle overs left Brisbane 20-30 runs short of what they would have been hoping for, with the visitors ending on 4/196.

It was exactly that margin that ended up losing them the game, as the Renegades put together an excellent chase off the back of a season-best knock by Jake Fraser-McGurk (95 from 46).

Josh Brown (32 from 11) helped Melbourne get off to a fast start, while Will Sutherland (13 from 6) and Fergus O’Neill provided some good cameos at the back end to take the Renegades through to 7/199 with two overs to spare.

The win briefly snuck the Renegades into fourth place on the BBL table.

“There’s a pulse,” Fraser-McGurk said after winning player of the match.

“Hopefully some results go our way.

“You can feel terrible, then you get two shots away and you are back.”

However, just hours later their hopes of making the playoffs were crushed when the Perth Scorchers beat the Adelaide Strikers to leap-frog Melbourne on the table.

Now, it is Perth clinging on to fourth place, hoping for the Hobart Hurricanes to beat the Melbourne Stars on Sunday night so they can play the Sydney Thunder in Wednesday’s knockout final.

Hobart are underdogs to defeat the Stars, however, with most cricket bookmakers putting match odds at $1.82 to $2 in Melbourne’s favour.

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Topics: BBL, Big Bash League, Brisbane Heat, Cricket, Melbourne Renegades, T20 Cricket

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