BBL 7, Match 26, Preview: The local rivals lock horns in a crunch game

When these two teams met on 6th of January at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), it turned out to be an absolute no-contest as the Renegades stream-roll over the Stars to hand them their 5th defeat in the tournament and pushed them closer to the elimination.

However, the Melbourne Renegades recently suffered a loss at the hands of the Perth Scorchers and that would have hurt them as they put a huge total of 185 on the board batting first and must have backed themselves to defend that successfully considering they have some of the best T20 bowlers going around in the business. But it wasn’t to be as the Scorchers managed to chase it down.

Aaron Finch’s boys would be itching to get back to the winning ways again and there can’t be a better occasion to do it than the Melbourne Derby. They will well and truly be walking into this game as the favourites because of the depth and strength of their squad and also because of the form of the Stars which has been horrific to say the least.

Talking about the Stars, they would know that they don’t have room for any more losses now as they already have 5 to their name and one or two more would close all the doors to the semi-finals. They have to raise their game, especially with the bat. They have traditionally been a power-packed batting line-up and even this season, they have got those big heavyweights on paper, but nobody barring Marcus Stoinis is hitting the ball well at the moment.

For Kevin Pietersen, this has probably been his worst BBL season ever as he is yet to score his first fifty in the tournament. He’s getting starts, but just when he threatens to launch, he finds a way of getting himself out. The Stars will however again have massive hopes with the big man as he is one player who if he gets in and it’s his day, will win the game single-handedly.

Considering the fan following that these two teams have, it should be a full house at the Docklands Stadium and the spectators can expect some thrilling contest between bat and ball.

Predicted XI

Melbourne Renegades: Marcus Harris, Dwayne Bravo (C), Tom Cooper, Travis Dean, Matt Short, Mohammad Nabi, Tim Ludeman, Jack Wildermuth, Kane Richardson, Brad Hogg, John Holland

Melbourne Stars: Ben Dunk, Luke Wright, Kevin Pietersen, Glenn Maxwell, Rob Quiney, James Faulkner, John Hastings (C), Liam Bowe, Michael Beer, Jack Coleman, Seb Gotch