Bowlers, late strikes help Renegades remain unbeaten

Melbourne Renegades 4 for 137 (Finch 33, Cooper 29, Rohrer 27, Cutting 2-12) beat Brisbane Heat 7 for 133 (Perera 38, Cutting 33*, Muralitharan 2-22) by six wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

After struggling to score quickly for most of their chase, Melbourne Renegades, through some late meaty blows by Tom Cooper, defeated Brisbane Heat by six wickets in the final over. They now lead the points table with four wins out of four.

The contest was going out of their reach when the Renegades were reduced to 3 for 63 in the 13th over, with two new batsmen at the crease. Initially, they struggled and the required run-rate mounted to 11.50 per over, but Cooper, and later Ben Rohrer and William Sheridan then reversed the tide and secured the win.

Their first step towards the victory was neatly executed when they restricted the Heat to 7 for 133 in their 20 overs with the help of some controlled bowling and regular wickets. They were already on top of their opponents when they reduced them to 3 for 27 in the sixth over. But this was when their Sri Lankan import Thisara Perera arrived to resuscitate the innings. He dominated a stand of 51 with Joe Burns - who eventually finished his innings with 13 off 20 deliveries - and with two sixes and three fours, attempted to take his team to a dominating position.

Before much damage could be done, seamer Darren Pattinson took two wickets in two balls, removing the pair. The Heat found it hard to score quickly thereon, and despite a knock of 33 off 24 deliveries from Ben Cutting, could only reach 133 for 7.

Cutting backed his knock with economical bowling as Renegades approached their chase in a sedate fashion. Although they hadn't lost too many wickets, the game looked to be going out of their reach after three-quarters of their innings. The top three batsmen consumed nearly 12 overs to score 57 runs, and they left it to the middle-order batsmen to launch the much-needed big hits.