Renegades triumph against Stars in Super Over

Just ask the Melbourne Renegades, who triumphed over the ladder-leading Melbourne Stars with a four-run win in a Super Over at the Sydney Showgrounds.

Set an imposing target (166 runs) for victory, the Renegades managed to tie the scores on the final ball of their innings, forcing the match into cricket’s version of extra time. It was here that the Gades managed to club 16 runs from their six deliveries, ensuring the target remained just out of the Stars’ reach.

Weaving her Webb
Courtney Webb is quickly making a name for herself as a batter for a crisis.

It was against the Sydney Sixers in WBBL|05 that Webb put her name on the map, when she hit a final ball six to win the match at Drummoyne Oval.

Now she can add her heroics against the Stars on Sunday (54 runs from 33 deliveries) to her list of batting rescue missions.

Webb came to the crease in the sixth over at 3-45, a long way short of the Renegades’ target.

She gradually worked her way into her groove as Josie Dooley (36 off 31) did the bulk of the scoring, but once Dooley fell, Webb began to take it upon herself to farm the strike and start finding the boundaries.

A total of three fours and three sixes came from her bat, as well as plenty of hard run singles and twos, combining nicely alongside Amy Yates (17 off 12) and the bowlers to tie the scores with the final ball of the innings.

Youngster leaves her mark
Earlier in the day, 17-year-old Ella Hayward marked herself as a player of the future.

The off-spinner, playing only her third match, took 4-16 from her four overs, bowling Nat Sciver (24 off 16), having Mignon du Preez (40 off 29) caught acrobatically by Molly Strano in the deep, and collecting two late stumpings to boot.

Far from darting the ball into the batters’ feet, Hayward gave the ball plenty of flight and drift, and picked up plenty of turn from the Sydney Showground pitch.

Still in the infancy of her cricket career, Hayward is certainly one to watch for the remainder of WBBL|06 and in the years to come.

A milestone at long last
Poor Molly Strano had to stay patient.

One scalp away from becoming the first player in WBBL history to take 100 wickets, Strano had to endure two matches stranded on 99 before finally breaking through.

Her triple figures came in the form of an LBW shout when she trapped Elyse Villani (17 off 20) in front during the fifth over.

It is a remarkable achievement, given Strano was a member of the original Renegades’ WBBL squad back in 2015/2016, and a long way (14 wickets) further ahead of any other bowler in the league’s history.

A crazy finish
It’s impossible to report on Sunday’s match without touching on the Super Over.

If a tie wasn’t wild enough, what happened next took the game to another level.

Webb continued batting, marching back to the middle alongside Lizelle Lee, who took strike against Sciver.

Lee crunched the first ball for four and the fifth for six, with the pair scampering between the wickets for the remainder of the over to set the Stars a target of 17 for victory.

It should have been enough – and it was – although it wasn’t without a late scare.

Charged with the bowling the final over, Sophie Molineux bowled magnificently, conceding only five runs from the first four balls.

But when du Preez clubbed the fifth ball straight back over the rope, the Stars looked a chance of pulling off victory with a final ball six.

Fortunately, Molineux held her nerve, restricting du Preez to only a single, allowing the Renegades to hang on by four runs.

What happens next?
Buoyed by Sunday’s miraculous win, the Renegades will have Monday to enjoy the spoils of victory before moving onto two games in two days against the Sydney Thunder on Tuesday night (7.05pm AEDT) and the Adelaide Strikers on Wednesday (2.30pm AEDT).