The Melbourne Renegades' bowlers were able to consistently take wickets, setting up the victory in the derby (Photo: Melbourne Renegades WBBL/Twitter)
With a dominant performance with the ball, the Melbourne Renegades continue to edge their way closer to a WBBL finals berth.
After their win against the Brisbane Heat on Saturday, the Renegades came into the Melbourne derby full of confidence.
Losing the bat flip, the Renegades looked switched on with their bowling and fielding plans, with Sophie Molineux’s opening over going for a single run. It wasn’t long until the first wicket fell, with Harmanpreet Kaur taking the wicket of Elyse Villani (one run off two balls) with a spectacular catch by Jemimah Rodrigues at point.
The Renegades’ bowlers gave the Stars’ batters no width to work with, continuing to produce dot balls. Annabel Sutherland (nine runs off nine balls) looked good, hitting a six before losing her wicket, skying a ball to slip off the bowling off Ellie Falconer, leaving the Stars 2/31 after the powerplay.
Maia Bouchier struggled to get off the mark, facing a maiden over off Rhiann O’Donnell, putting pressure on batting partner Meg Lanning to bulk the load of the scoring. Lanning (17 runs off 19 balls) would depart after Ella Hayward’s opening delivery, leaving the Stars in a dangerous area at 2/33 after eight overs.
Bouchier (five runs off 16 balls) followed an over later, putting pressure on Kim Garth and incoming batter Erin Osborne to get the Stars to a respectable total. Garth and Osborne put on a run a ball partnership of 42 before Garth was run out for 32 runs.
Through the middle overs, the Renegades continually took wickets stopping the Stars from creating any momentum throughout their innings. Especially Sophie Molineux, capturing the wickets of Tess Flintoff (one run off three balls) and Erin Osborne (29 runs off 36 balls) during that middle period.
The Renegades were able to bowl the Stars out, restricting them to 103 off their allotted 20 overs. Harmanpreet Kaur almost ended with a hat-trick, taking the wickets of Linsey Smith (two runs off three balls) and Rhys McKenna (golden duck).
Kaur was unable to secure the hat-trick, instead running out Nicole Faltum (five runs off seven balls) to close the Stars’ batting innings.
All of the Renegades bowlers were impressive, but Kaur (3/22 off four overs) and Sophie Molineux (2/10 off four overs) were standouts.
Post-match, Player of the Match for her economical spell of bowling, Molineux praised the bowlers for their efforts.
“I think our bowling innings was pretty good,” she said
“We had clear plans to hit the stumps, and the girls did a really good job.”
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After restricting the Stars to an under par total, it came time for the Renegades to chase the runs down. After their dominant opening partnership on Saturday, Eve Jones and Jemimah Rodrigues were unable to replicate it as Tess Flintoff bowled Jones for a duck in the second over.
Coming in at three, Carly Leeson joined Rodrigues at the crease. The pair guided the Renegades through the powerplay without the loss of any more wickets, leaving the side 1/46 after six overs.
As the field spread, Leeson and Rodrigues continued to go through the gears, putting on an 81 run partnership before Rodrigues (45 runs off 38 balls) was caught by Rhys McKenna off the bowling of Irish international Kim Garth in the 12th over. Garth would also secure Leeson’s (41 runs off 33 balls) wicket two overs later.
Harmanpreet Kaur (12 runs) hit the winning runs on the first ball of the next over, steering the Renegades to 3/104 off 14.1 overs, putting them four points ahead of the second-placed Brisbane Heat in the WBBL|07 standings.
The Melbourne Renegades remain in Adelaide and will return to Karen Roltan Oval on Thursday, November 11 to take on the same opponent, the Melbourne Stars from 4:20pm local time.
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