BBL 2025-26: Brown, Sandhu help Renegades come out on top in Melbourne derby

The first of the Sunday double-headers witnessed the Melbourne derby at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on January 4. Melbourne Renegades won the bat flip and elected to field first.

Melbourne Stars began the proceedings with spin as Hassan Khan bowled a tight first over to Sam Harper and Thomas Rogers. But, Jason Behrendorff released all the pressure in the second over as the openers scored 14 runs off it. Harper (20 off 10), who looked dangerous, departed in the next over as Gurinder Sandhu struck for the first time.

Rogers could not really get going as he was the next to go for 15(13). The Stars innings suffered further damage not long after as Blake Macdonald and Glenn Maxwell were out for three and one respectively.

Campbell Kellaway saw his partners come and go at the other end as the Stars looked in trouble at 55/4 in the eighth over. The 23-year-old left-hander combined with skipper Marcus Stoinis to rebuild the innings. However, the latter became Sandhu's second victim in the 11th over.

The Stars kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Kellaway, who anchored the innings for a considerable amount of time, finally succumbed for 33(27) in the 15th over. A crucial 41-run partnership off 18 balls between Tom Curran and Mitchell Swepson took the home team to a competitive 173/9 at the end of the 20 overs. Sandhu was the pick of the bowlers for his figures of 4-0-41-4.

The Renegades got off to a quick start to their chase. Josh Brown played the lead role while Seifert was out cheaply for 6(5). Wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan joined Brown and the duo took the Renegades to the end of the powerplay without further loss (43/1). 

Brown was in no mood to relent as the right-hander punished the Stars bowlers. The 32-year-old reached his half century in 30 balls, the batter's first of the season. Rizwan, at the other end, played second fiddle giving the strike to Brown whenever he could. 

The visitors crossed the 100-run mark in the 12th over and just needed 64 runs in the last eight overs with nine wickets in hand. Brown kept on going with his methods, but Swepson brought an end to his scintillating innings in the 15th over. The Renegades stood at 127/2 in the 15th over as Brown departed for 84(48), his knock comprising nine fours and four sixes.

Rizwan was dismissed soon after for 41(38) as the Renegades were fearing a collapse. A mini-collapse did happen as the Men in Red ended the 18th over at 149/5, needing 25 runs. Oliver Peake (10 off 5) struck a crucial six off the penultimate over bowled by Haris Rauf but the batter had to depart in the same over.

13 runs were needed off the last over and it was skipper vs skipper. Stars captain Stoinis brought himself on and was struck for a six off the first ball by the Renegades leader Will Sutherland. The equation became a comfortable one and the visitors overcame the target with four wickets in hand and one ball remaining. For the Stars, Rauf and Peter Siddle picked up two wickets but both were expensive.

Notably, the match witnessed 68,124 fans thronging to the MCG, the third-biggest in BBL history.