BBL 5 Match 3 Review: Brisbane Heats v Melbourne Renegades, Aaron Finch powers Renegades to a thrilling win

Lendl Simmons, who came out as a late replacement for Brendon McCullum opened the innings with Jimmy Peirson after Brisbane Heats won the toss and elected to bat first on a lovely batting wicket at The Gabba.

Both the openers looked little dodgy from the beginning. Chris Tremain started the first over really well, giving away just one run. He came back again in the third over to remove the Jimmy Peirson (10 from 11 balls) who recovered well from a shaky first over to hit two boundaries in the second over.

Joe Burns then joined Lendl Simmons in the middle. Soon, Simmons began attacking as Burns played calmly in support. But the Heats suffered another setback just when the run flow had become steady. Simmons, after an 18-run over, was cleaned bowled by left-arm spinner, Xavier Doherty. Doherty came back in the next over and struck again. Joe Burns was desperately trying to be aggressive and lost his wicket in that process.

The captain walked in next as the Heats were at just 66 after 10 overs. However, the next ten overs were full of fireworks. Lynn and Nathan Reardon then steadied the innings with a roaring partnership of 51 in the next five overs. Just when the partnership had become very dangerous, Dwayne Bravo provided the breakthrough for the Renegades as he got Lynn (25 from 20 balls) caught by Tom Cooper. An over later, Reardon (28 from 22 balls) too lost his wicket. But, James Hopes and Ben Cutting then joined in together to finish the undone job. The duo bashed Bravo and Rimmington in the 19th and 20th over and hit 49 runs off the last three overs to take the Heats total to a commanding 180/5 after the end of 20 overs.

Guy Walker (0/47) in three overs was the most expensive for the Renegades while Xavier Doherty 2/29 was the best performer with the ball.

The target was not simple by any means and the Renegades fans had their hopes and confidence on the explosive pair of Chris Gayle and Aaron Finch. The bowling, on paper, did not have any big threats, but 181 is always challenging.

Both gave a breezy start to the innings before the Gold colored bat wielding Chris Gayle (23 from 16 balls) was dismissed by Mark Steketee. But, there were no further reasons to celebrate for the Heats as Aaron Finch and Cameron White put on a match-winning partnership of 111 runs. Finch never missed a chance to punish the bad balls. There was no recklessness in batting as he rotated the strike regularly and took calculated risks in his innings 65 from 45 balls. On the other hand, White was happy to nudge singles and occasional hits over the fence. Both the batsmen were set and were batting smoothly but the required run rate was still a bit high and the match was still not in the pockets of the Renegades.

The match, however, had a very exciting twist at the right moment to split the game wide open. Both Finch and White were dismissed off back to back deliveries by Andrew Fekete. 32 were required in the last three overs. Dwayne Bravo and Matthew Wade had a challenging task at their hands. A subsequent tight over from Samuel Badree made the match more interesting.

However, Bravo took things in his hand in the next over by smashing 20 runs off the bowling of Steketee. This expensive over virtually sealed the match as only five were now required off the last over. Matthews Wade did that job by hitting two boundaries off the first three balls of the final over itself.

The match was even till the final half hour of the game with none of the teams gaining an upper hand over the other. But the late blistering cameo from Bravo made the difference. It was a great finishing touch to the hard work of Aaron Finch and Cameron White. The Heats did nothing horribly wrong except letting the Finch-White partnership flourish.

Brief Scores:

Brisbane Heat – 180/5 in 20 overs (Chris Lynn 35; Xavier Doherty 2/29)

Melbourne Renegades – 184/3 in 19.3 overs (Aaron Finch 65; Andrew Fekete 2/44)

Man of the Match: Aaron Finch

Watch: Chris Gayle smashes 32 in one over in the Big Bash League