Renegades claim the first ever Melbourne Mace in dramatic fashion

In front of a whopping 68,124 fans at the MCG, the Melbourne Renegades have claimed the Melbourne Mace after defeating the Melbourne Stars by four wickets on Sunday night.

The Renegades won the toss at the bat flip and elected to field first, which proved to be the right decision in the end as Gurinder Sandhu ran riot with the ball in hand.

The former Sydney Thunder quick took an impressive 4/41 off his four overs, which played a big part in helping restrict the Stars’ batting score to a reachable target for the struggling visitors.

After setting a solid run chase in the opening innings, the Stars’ bowling attack struggled to contain the fire power of Renegades opener Josh Brown, who powered his way to a match winning effort of 84 runs off 48 balls to help the Renegades claim their second win of the season.

Brown, who put together a strong 103 run partnership with Mohammad Rizwan, made light work of the long boundaries at the MCG after smacking away 13 boundaries for his innings.

After Mitchell Swepson took the all-important wicket of Brown for the Stars, the Renegades began to stumble as they went on to lose their next three wickets for only 21 runs – ultimately setting up the dramatic finish that captivated the Victorian crowd.

But as he has done in the past, captain Will Sutherland stepped up to the plate when his team needed him most and was able to steer the Renegades to victory in a frantic final over.

Sunday night’s loss marks the second defeat in a row for the Stars, who were coming off a loss to the Heat on Friday night which ended their hot 4-0 start to the season.

Next up for the Renegades, they will travel to Perth to take on the in-form Scorchers on Wednesday.

As for the Stars, they will look to snap their two-game losing streak with a win against the Sydney Sixers at the MCG on Thursday.