Melbourne Renegades begin WBBL campaign with win despite missing key players

Melbourne Renegades combatted late nerves to win their first game of the Women's Big Bash season, defeating Adelaide Strikers by four wickets thanks largely to their bowling effort

Mackay: Adelaide Strikers 126 -7, Melbourne Renegades 128-6 – Renegades win by four wickets

Scorecard

Melbourne Renegades got over the line in their opening game of the Women's Big Bash to win by four wickets on the penultimate ball of the game.

Captain Sophie Molineux inspired an impressive bowling performance with 4 for 23 off her four overs which restricted the Strikers to 126, before her team did just enough to chase the total down in the final over.

This defeat leaves Strikers still searching for their first win of the campaign, having lost their opening two games of the tournament.

Molineux was ably supported by two overseas stars, Hayley Matthews (1 for 17) and Shabnim Ismail (2 for 30) in a bowling effort which left their team with a target well within their reach.

Tahlia McGrath (36) and Madeline Penna (35) seemed to have recovered the innings well but when their partnership of 61 off 55 was broken, the innings was unable to accelerate. Molineux took both wickets.

^{Adelaide Strikers remain winless so far this season (Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)}

The game looked to be drifting calmly to a Renegade victory after a 47-run opening partnership, this despite Darcie Brown bowling the fastest ball ever recorded in the WBBL at 127.2kph, although there was some talk that the speed gun might have misfunctioned for that delivery.

But Strikers kept themselves in the game with regular wickets, Megan Schutt (2 for 23) was characteristically economical, as well as Jemma Barsby (1 for 16), whose spell meant that the run rate was always somewhat of a concern to Renegades, who were without India captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who has not yet arrived in Australia after winning the Asia Cup.

The winning runs were left to former Striker Sarah Coyte as she hit Deandra Dottin to the boundary with just a ball to spare and claim a thrilling victory.

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