Renegades and Stars - contrasting fortunes of two Melbourne sides

Stars and Renegades were aligned by destiny to meet in the last year’s finals, despite the odds stacking against the city. While the Renegades were up and running thanks to their win over their rivals, the Stars need to have a long look ahead of the 2020 season. Andrew McDonald and Aaron Finch fed on to the fodder laid by the famous Stars collapse. 

Meanwhile, on the other end of the city, Stars changed their tactics dramatically, that is to swap the roles of Ben Dunk and Nic Maddinson. This season, Maddinson has been the mainstay alongside Stoinis to get the Stars off to a decent start before they cash in money out in the middle overs with Peter Handcomb, Dunk and more importantly Glenn Maxwell. Dwayne Bravo’s experience with the ball in the middle overs has been an invaluable asset for the Stars, however, following his retirement they had to rope in more experienced bowlers. That set them off the pace in the winter with the acquisition of Nathan Coulter-Nile and Dale Steyn. 

While 29 should not sound too much of an asking from Marsh, the strike-rate at which White scored the 29 was more integral to the team, in 17 balls in a crunch game. This season, his replacement, not the most like-to-like of, Marsh has scored his runs at a strike-rate of 120 even when the openers have struggled. Also, it has elevated Dan Christian’s position places above from where he usually bats, putting him in a dire spot of replicating the phenomenal aggression he is known for starting the 12th over, which is a daunting task. 

Multiple changes in the batting order, with last year’s leading run-scorer Sam Harper being put into the deep opening the batting alongside skipper Finch. Harper’s power-hitting willow takes precedent over his crafty flicks in the middle overs under this setup. Arguably his success last season has come when he has walked in at No.3 and not while he opened the innings, which he failed doing a few times last year. Finch’s form has seen some improvement, however, has it been significant, I’m afraid not!

So where exactly is the issue? The bowling department, the same department where their city rivals Stars have seen a massive improvement, so drastic that they have two bowlers in the top five wicket-takers thus far in the season. Adam Zampa has worked incredibly hard off-season, controlling his previously wayward leg-spin while the inclusion of Haris Rauf has been a blessing in disguise. However, the blessing in disguise could only work because of their well-knitted scouting network, who handpicked the Pakistani bowler to replace Dale Steyn. For the rest of the world, this decision came in as a shocker and was underwhelming, but inside the dressing room, the Stars knew who they were about to unleash in the Big Bash. 

Okay, so you do talk highly about the Stars bowling, the Renegades have a good bowling line-up too. Well, I can’t fret where to start with the ‘Gades attack. One time they look excellent and the other time ordinary - well I’m talking about the time where they defeated the Stars in the finals, their only basking glory in the last year. They won some tight games last season, the same games that they are failing to chase/defend this year. How much has it changed from the last season you might ask?

In contrast this year, with both Richardson and Boyce still part of the merry bowling unit, the ‘Gades failed to defend 170 in Geelong. By the time the bowlers struck first, the game was already out of the reach for the home side, with Usman Khawaja and Alex Hales stretching the game away from the ‘Gades. Same bowlers, similar conditions, yet to what effect, this sums up the issues that the Reds’ have this season, lack of picking up early wickets and more so the inability to strike in the middle overs. The underwhelming form of their pace battery Harry Gurney and the unavailability of Mohammad Nabi, the ‘Gades have had no choice but to get Samit Patel as an option. 

On the best of days, the English all-rounder can restrain the flow of runs and not pick wickets. For the ‘Gades, they are already doing that with Richardson and Boyce, all they need is a genuine wicket-taker, which their city-rivals Stars have in the form of the Pakistani sensation Haris Rauf and the leggie Adam Zampa. While one folded like a pack of cards, the other rose up to regain the status that they lost on 17/2/2019.