MELBOURNE: The Melbourne Renegades won their maiden Big Bash League Twenty20 Australian title on Sunday, beating the Melbourne Stars by 13 runs after the Stars had a calamitous batting collapse of seven wickets for 19 runs while seemingly cruising to victory.

Chasing a target of 146 runs, the Stars were in command at 93 for no loss in the 13th over after restricting the Renegades to 145-5 in their 20 overs after winning the toss.

Glenn Maxwell (1), Peter Handscomb (0) and Dwayne Bravo (3) were all part of the collapse for the Stars after the Renegades had Marcus Stoinis (39 from 38 balls) bowled to make the initial breakthrough.

When Bravo departed, the Stars needed 34 from 14 balls and didn’t get close.

Ben Dunk was the top-scorer for the Stars with 57 from 45 balls, while Dan Christian, Chris Tremain and Cameron Boyce all took two wickets each for the Renegades.

Earlier, Maxwell sent the Renegades in after winning the bat flip and his bowlers soon gained the upper hand as the home side slumped to 65-5 in the 11th over. But Tom Cooper (43 from 35 balls) and Christian (38 from 30) steadied their side with an unbeaten 80-run partnership from 58 balls for a competitive total.

Leg-spinner Adam Zampa went for 11 runs in his first over, but recovered to claim 2-21 from his four overs. Jackson Bird took 2-25 from three overs and helped force the run-out that got captain Aaron Finch out for 13 runs from 10 deliveries.

Finch was run out at the non-striker’s end after Bird stuck his boot out to a Cameron White drive that deflected onto the stumps.

Finch’s frustration at the unlucky dismissal was evident as cameras caught Australia One-day International captain twice belting a chair with his bat as he disappeared down the tunnel to the change rooms.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2019