BBL 2025-26: Ellis, Wade guide Hobart Hurricanes to victory over Melbourne Renegades

Match 15 of the Big Bash League 2025-26 witnessed the Hobart Hurricanes lock horns with the Melbourne Renegades at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart on Monday, December 29. The home team won the toss and elected to field first.

The visitors had a rollicking start as the openers, Josh Brown and Tim Seifert, went all guns blazing. Brown ripped apart Chris Jordan in the first over, taking out 16 runs from it. It was the turn of Seifert to carry on with the momentum as the Kiwi scored 10 runs off Riley Meredith's first over.

Nathan Ellis' first over was going the same way as his bowling partners' until he got the breakthrough off the last ball in the form of Brown (26 off 13). The Renegades were left 38/1 after three overs. Rizwan joined Seifert and the right-handers took the team past the 50-run mark without any further damage. However, just when it looked like the duo will start to dominate Seifert (26 off 14) fell to Mitchell Owen.

Rizwan (16 off 12) was dismissed soon after. Despite losing three wickets the Renegades' run rate was not impacted as they continued to score at more than 10 runs per over. Jake Fraser-McGurk (14 off 8), who tried to up the ante, was the next to go as the visitors lost four wickets for 95 runs. 

The Renegades innings lost a little bit of momentum as they lost wickets at regular intervals. Oliver Peake (29 off 22), captain Will Sutherland (17 off 20), and Gurinder Sandhu (16* off 13) contributed with handy knocks to take the team to 162/9 in their allotted 20 overs. For the Hurricanes, Nathan Ellis was the pick of the bowlers with 3/30.

Owen (10 off 13) and Tim Ward started the chase steadily. The former was not able to get into the rhythm and ultimately succumbed to Andrew Tye who got his first wicket for the Renegades. A brief partnership between Ward and Beau Webster kept things steady, but the required run rate was climbing. After hitting a six off the previous ball Ward (30 off 26) tried to reduce the pressure further through a slog sweep but was caught in the deep.

Ben McDermott came and went in a flash for a two-ball duck as the Hurricanes looked in trouble at 59/3 in nine overs. But a 27-run partnership between Webster (27 off 20) and Nikhil Chaudhary (19 off 12) kept the home team in the game. However, the pair fell in the space of seven balls, leaving the Hurricanes in a precarious position once again at 94/5.

Matthew Wade (43* off 20) and Rehan Ahmed combined to form a crucial 38-run partnership as the Hurricanes came back into the game. Though Ahmed (23 off 14) fell towards the end Wade ensured that he saw his team home. The Hurricanes won the match by four wickets and an over to spare.

Adam Zampa was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4-0-25-3. Meanwhile, for his effective spell, Ellis was declared the Player of the Match.

Hurricanes are tied on points (8) with the Melbourne Stars and placed at the second spot. Renegades, on the other hand, are at the bottom with two points though they have played only three matches.