Renegades chase down Scorchers to go top of BBL ladder

The Melbourne Renegades sit top of the BBL table after beating the Perth Scorchers by two wickets on Monday night at Docklands Stadium.

Coming into their third match as slight underdogs across cricket betting sites, the Renegades won the toss and opted to field first.

Perth’s openers again misfired, with Finn Allen (0 from 3) out third ball and Keaton Jennings (12 from 9) getting run out.

First-drop Cooper Connolly, however, worked his way through tricky batting conditions and put on 66 runs from 50 balls to anchor the Scorchers’ innings.

He found company from Matthew Spoors (29 from 26) in the middle order, but the rest of the line-up struggled as Perth ended on 8/143 from their 20 overs.

In response, the Renegades defied T20 betting odds and put together a team performance to chase down the target with an over to spare.

Jake Fraser-McGurk (2 from 4) fell early, but Josh Brown (12 from 6) and Tim Seifert (28 from 14) put on a healthy stand to get the home side ahead of the required run rate.

After both fell within four balls of each other, Jacob Bethell (30 from 22) and Laurie Evans (24 from 18) continued Melbourne’s momentum, taking the hosts through to just shy of triple digits.

Wickets continued falling, with six different Perth bowlers claiming scalps, but captain Will Sutherland (15 from 20) carried his bat to take the Renegades to 8/144 from 19 overs.

“After a disappointing performance in the first game, I think the bowlers wanted to come back and improve from that and help the team out,” Melbourne seamer Tom Rogers said after earning player-of-the-match honours with figures of 3/22.

“Fortunately, we’re heading into Christmas feeling slightly better than after the first game.

“I thought Cooper Connolly deserved [player of the match] from the losing side of the night, played a hell of a knock scoring 60 or 70 out there.

“It was a tight little game in the end.”

Despite sitting top of the table with two wins from three games, Big Bash bookies still put the Renegades on the fourth line of betting at $7.50 to win the title.

Perth, meanwhile, remain second favourites for the title at $5 with Marantelli Bet.

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