Renegades and Stars - contrasting fortunes of two Melbourne sides
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While the Stars collapsed last season after having an excellent start, the Renegades have decided to take that unlucky mantle up this season with almost the same squad. In just one season, or I may say, winter, the teams have interchanged their luck, their starts and more importantly, fortunes.
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.
Coming into the season, the two Melbourne sides had some personnel changes, be it appointing a new coach or be it adding some much-needed experience in the hood. When one door closes, another opens; literally for the Stars, it opened up the pandora box for the next season.
While the Stars made the fullest use of adding the veteran David Hussey to the dugout, city rivals Renegades decided to use the experience of Michael Klinger to make the dugout top-order heavy. So much top-order heavy that it has started to have an immediate impact on their performance, with Sam Harper and Finch getting the license to score quick runs. However, it all comes crashing down when they don’t fire, like this season.
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 the Stars have done some scouting and trading off-season, the Renegades laid a dead duck, with the only addition of Shaun Marsh in the middle of the order after they let go of their veteran Cameron White. Well for starters, White’s experience has been vital for the ‘Gades last season, including his match-winning knock of 29 in the 2nd semi-final against the Stars.
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!
Their batting seems to be clicking most times this season, although could be better with the inclusion of Marsh and the talented Beau Webster, who can hit the ball a long way. Something that the 'Gades should think of doing and real soon is to promote the left-handed Marsh up the order alongside the skipper. The reasons behind it were fairly simple, Finch is most explosive in the powerplays and the fact that he only faces the odd deliveries in the powerplay take away a good start from the 'Gades and a solution would be to allow Marsh and Finch to solve the opening conundrum.
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?
The ‘Gades played the Thunders early in the season last and this time around, the results, starkly different. In 2019, playing at home against the Thunders, Finch’s side put up a slightly challenging total of 141 to the visitors, whose batting line-up included the likes of Shane Watson, Callum Ferguson, Chris Green and the Kiwi opener Anton Devcich. What did the ‘Gades bowling attack do? They ripped them apart early in the powerplay before they could even lay a foot onto the ground to chase the target. In the end, it was a daunting prospect for them, as they fell short by 27 runs, with Kane Richardson and Cameron Boyce accounting for half the Thunders’ batting lineup.
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.
