Harvey's heroics sink Stars in memorable BBL derby

The match in a tweet: Mack attack sinks the Stars! Some extraordinary late hitting hands the Renegades a thrilling win and deals a hammer blow to the Stars’ #BBL10 finals chances

The score: Melbourne Stars 6-158 (Larkin 61no, Stoinis 37; Evans 2-23) lost to Melbourne Renegades 5-160 (Harvey 47no, Webster 22no; Coulter-Nile 3-41) by five wickets with two balls remaining

The late surge: With 63 runs needed from the final five overs, an inexperienced Renegades side looked an outside hope at best of pulling off just their third win of the season. But a combination of the Power Surge and a free-swinging Mackenzie Harvey saw 38 runs clobbered from the next three overs to bring the equation down to a very manageable 25 needed from 12 balls. And when Harvey slammed the first ball of the penultimate over for six, and Beau Webster did the same to the final delivery of the over, the Renegades – from nowhere – needed six to win from the last and were suddenly red-hot favourites to win.

The last over: Liam Hatcher was given the responsibility of taking the last over and he started well, the Renegades managing only singles from the first three deliveries. But when Hatcher missed his length with the fourth ball of the over, Webster – who finished unbeaten on 22 from just nine balls - took advantage of mid on being up inside the circle, slamming another boundary to secure the win with two balls to spare. 

The hero: Having not been able to take his chances as an opener earlier in the tournament, Harvey has been pushed down the batting order and he was in devastating touch tonight. The nephew of former Australia allrounder Ian, Harvey has a style that’s all his own and he used it to great effect, hammering six fours and two sixes in his 21-ball innings of 47.

The consolation effort: Having started the season at No.6 in the order, Nick Larkin has impressed since he’s been given a semi-permanent home at first drop in the Stars’ batting order. After a composed innings of 43 against the Renegades on Saturday, Larkin stepped up when his side needed him tonight, top-scoring with 61 not out from 47 balls on a pitch that most batters struggled for rhythm on – at least until the last five overs. It wasn’t always pretty – he edged a handful of boundaries to the rope at third man – but also struck some sweetly timed fours at crucial moments and was particularly damaging behind point.

The unplayable delivery: In the first over of his comeback game after a calf injury, Nathan Coulter-Nile produced a beauty to knock over his old WA teammate, Shaun Marsh. Having missed most of the season, the return of Coulter-Nile could be just the boost the Stars need to finally end their title drought this season.

The skipper: Aaron Finch’s horror tournament continued with another unlucky dismissal that normally befalls a player out of touch. Having been caught down the leg side and run out when backing up at the bowler’s end in recent games, Finch had moved to 10 tonight before perhaps the most unfortunate dismissal of the lot. Having tried to sweep a ball from Zahir Khan that was heading down the leg side, the ball got caught in Finch’s pants and somehow spun back onto his stumps, the skipper’s reaction telling the full story.

The absentees: A tough season for the Renegades was made even tougher tonight as Kane Richardson joined an ever-growing injury list with a quad injury that has ruled him out of the rest of the season. From the list of contracted players the Renegades had at the start of the season, tonight they were without Richardson, James Pattinson, Noor Ahmad, Cameron Boyce, Rilee Rossouw (all injured), Mohammad Nabi, Marcus Harris (international duty) and Imran Tahir (personal reasons), with Harris the only one of that group of eight who will return before the end of the season.

The youngster: In seven overs across three BBL matches and two seasons, young paceman Zak Evans had yet to take a wicket for the Renegades. But like London buses, one quickly brought a second tonight as the Stars stumbled early in their innings. Having watched an edge from Marcus Stoinis fly past the wicketkeeper and to the boundary, Evans got his revenge a short time later when he had the Stars opener caught on the square leg boundary. And Evans wasn’t fazed by the surprise elevation of Coulter-Nile to No.4 in the order, knocking over the stumps the very next ball to make it two in two balls.

The stat: Peter Hatzoglou’s rise from third grade to BBL cricket has been remarkable and it continued tonight with another two wickets to move to 15 for the tournament, equal most for the Renegades alongside Kane Richardson. And with Richardson ruled out of the rest of the tournament, the young leggie looks set to finish the season at the top of the club’s wicket-taking list.

The next stops: Both teams are back in action again on Saturday as the regular season draws to a close in a big weekend of cricket in Melbourne and Adelaide. The Renegades can’t make the finals but could all but end Brisbane’s season with a win at Marvel Stadium, while the Stars face a pivotal clash against the Scorchers later that evening at the MCG.