Hogg, White star for 'Gades in MCG derby

The result: Melbourne Renegades 4-171 (White 64, Cooper 36, Finch 30) off 20 overs defeat Melbourne Stars 9-151 (Wright 45, Hogg 3-22) off 18 overs (target 159) by nine runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method.

Match in a tweet: It wasn’t always pretty, but the ‘Gades take bragging rights in rain-affected clash with cross-town rivals in front of over 70,000 at the 'G  

The pinch-hitter: The Renegades sprung an early tactical surprise when mystery spinner Sunil Narine, holding a Test average of 8.00, walked out to open the batting with skipper Aaron Finch. While he had a fresh-air swing off the first delivery of the match from Michael Beer, the Trinidadian unleashed in the third over, smashing Scott Boland for a four back over his head before flicking him for six over backward square-leg.

The catch: If you weren’t sure Kevin Pietersen was back in the country, he announced it loud and proud with a stunning catch to end the Narine experiment. Running back from mid-off, after an ambitious lofted back-foot punch from Narine, the former England star showed excellent athleticism to get to the ball and then hang on to the diving effort. And despite clear evidence to the contrary, Pietersen declared the cricketing public was aware of “how rubbish I am in the field" on the mic for Channel Ten in their broadcast.

The hero: Cameron White’s been in superb touch for Victoria in the Sheffield Shield and he played a fine hand to prop up the Renegades’ innings. Starting slowly after coming to the crease at 2-61, he rotated the strike expertly in his 72-run partnership with Tom Cooper. Facing just five dots in his 43-ball knock, he found the fence with a couple of sparkling lofted straight hits off Boland towards the back-end of his innings, finishing with 64 off 43 balls.

The missed chance: White’s stay should have come to an end when he was on 51 after attempting a suicidal single. He bunted the ball into the offside straight into the path of fast-bowler Ben Hilfenhaus’ follow-through, but with three stumps to aim at and White well short of the non-striker’s end, the former Test quick missed the pegs to hand him a life.

The elevation: Having thrived at the top of the order for Australia in their T20 International series in Sri Lanka in September, Glenn Maxwell was promoted to the opening slot for the Stars following his match-winning half-century on Boxing Day against the Hurricanes from No.4. But it was a short-lived affair, clean-bowled off his third ball from part-time offie Tom Cooper.

The headline acts: While they were hardly starved for entertainment, 71,162 MCG patrons may have been a little miffed to see both Maxwell and Pietersen back in the sheds in just the third over. Pietersen looked in ominous touch as he raced to 15 off seven balls, but young Renegades paceman Cameron Stevenson ended his stay a ball later as Finch clung on to a miscued drive at mid-off.

The over: We don’t know if he’d lost his action or the footing on the MCG track had gotten a little slippery but Chris Tremain’s third over went like this: wide, no-ball, free-hit dot, wide, wide, wicket, one run, one run, wide, dot, one run. The Renegades tearaway looked to be aiming for a different pitch with his first two deliveries, before just getting his the third, a free-hit, inside the offside wide line. Two more wides came before Tremain’s switch to around the wicket paid immediate dividends as Faulkner holed out to long-off. He sent down another wide later in the over for good measure and the 11-ball affair took nine minutes in total.

The veteran: How does he keep doing it? George Bradley Hogg didn’t look a day over 21 as he set off in celebration for each of his three vital wickets. The prized scalp of captain David Hussey halted the Stars momentum before returning with the key breakthrough of Luke Wright for 44.

The trio of run-outs: Has this ever happened before? The penultimate over of the Stars’ innings saw three Stars players caught short of their ground as the match spiralled out to a truly strange ending. Adam Zampa, Ben Hilfenhaus and Scott Boland were all run-out in the same Sunil Narine over in varying states of confusion. Somehow Marcus Stoinis survived all three run-outs. Zampa broke his bat in frustration after his mix-up with allrounder, Hilfenhaus ended up down the same end as him while Boland couldn’t make his ground trying to get him back on strike. Stoinis finished unbeaten on 18 as the Stars fell eight runs short of their rain-reduced target.

The wash-up: The win for the Renegades sees them go to second on the BBL ladder, though they could slip down again later tonight should the Scorchers prevail in the second match of today's double-header. With a win and a loss from their two games, the Stars play again on Wednesday against the Thunder at Spotless Stadium, while the Renegades don't play again until the second Melbourne derby at Etihad Stadium next Saturday.