The Melbourne Renegades looked to be heading towards an easy victory but a bizarre run of events saw them suffer a massive loss.
The Melbourne Renegades have truly become their own worst enemies in Thursday’s Big Bash League clash against the Adelaide Strikers at Adelaide Oval.
The Strikers pulled off a 49-run win but the match flipped on its head early in the Renegades batting innings.
Watch every game of the KFC Big Bash League Live & On-Demand on Kayo or catch up for FREE with minis on Kayo Freebies. Join Kayo Now >
Opening batters Sam Harper and Mackenzie Harvey were in cruise control, racing to 0/39 in the fifth over while chasing the Strikers’ 149.
But Rashid Khan may have shown his bowling isn’t the only thing that can bamboozle batters as he went up for a big shout against Harvey.
Khan ran towards the strikers end in the appeal while looking over his shoulder as the Strikers and the vocal Adelaide crowd went up as one.
Then, inexplicably, Harvey took off for the run while Harper turned back towards his own crease and both men wound up at the same end.
“What happened? Didn’t hear the call?” Brendan Julian asked on Fox Cricket.
Andrew Symonds was equally perplexed as to what went on.
“Either Harper was ball watching … there’s crowd noise, a lot of crowd noise, so the call mustn’t have been loud enough,” he said. “It was just a complete miscommunication.
“There was a simple run in there, Harper was leaning on his bat pretty much the whole time and watching the ball roll out towards point.”
“I think they’ve both stuffed that up,” Julian added.
“Monumental mix-up,” Symonds said. “The embarrassment is the pain isn’t it.”
Haddin said Harvey’s 19 off 12 balls was “in control, batting with a really good tempo”.
Julian said it was “exactly what the Adelaide Strikers needed” — and he didn’t know how right he was at that point.
By the 10th over, the Renegades still looked to have the game in hand at 2/69, even though Julian started to sense the side were starting to allow the pressure to mount up, needing eight an over for the final 10.
But the Renegades simply fell apart from there, losing 8-28 to be bundled out for 100 in the 19th over.
While the Strikers claimed the win by 49 runs, Symonds said Adelaide had “got out of jail” and that neither side would be happy with the performances.
The Strikers had raced to 3/86 off the first 10 but were also bowled out.
At the end of the game, Symonds went back to the run out and said he was still “gob-struck”. “It was just a massive kerfuffle and that started the rot,” he said. “They were 0/39 at that point and then they got bowled out for 100. That’s an embarrassing defeat to be bowled out for 100 from 0/39.”
It means the pair have shared a win each from the back-to-back clashes between the teams.
Originally published as Horror Melbourne Renegades run out farce triggers BBL ‘embarrassment’