Big Bash League: Adelaide Strikers beat Melbourne Renegades by 32 runs

Jack Weatherald was adjudged Player of the Match for his 71 runs off 44 balls

Adelaide Strikers registered a comprehensive 32-run win over Melbourne Renegades in their Big Bash League 2018 encounter at Geelong on Thursday.

Adelaide Strikers’ Rashid Khan (right) celebrates a wicket. (Twitter/StrikersBBL)

Strikers’ opener Jake Weatherald smashed 71 runs off 44 balls with the help of six fours and three sixes on a pitch that proved difficult for free-flowing batting. Afghanistan international Rashid Khan smashed two sixes and as many fours on his way to a seven-ball 22 to provide a final flourish to the Strikers’ total.

Jonathan Wells (22) and Alex Carey (16) were other significant contributors to the Strikers’ final total as the Renegades used seven different bowlers. Cameron Boyce was the pick of the Renegades’ bowling attack, taking two wickets for just 16 runs from his four overs.

However, the run chase never got going as the Melbourne outfit kept losing wickets at regular intervals, beginning in the third over when Billy Stanlake accounted for Mackenzie Harvey.

Beau Webster topscored for Renegades with 33 that came off 36 balls.

There was resistance lower down the batting order as Jack Wildermuth (24) and Cameron Boyce (18) hung in to delay the inevitable. Michael Neser, Liam O’Connor and Stanlake picked up two wickets each, while Ben Laughlin, Colin Ingram and Rashid Khan chipped in with a wicket apiece.

Weatherald was adjudged Player of the Match for his knock.

The win takes Strikers to second behind Hobart Hurricanes in the BBL standings while Renegades lie sixth with two wins and three losses from their first five games.

Strikers will take on Sydney Sixers in their next league fixture at Adelaide on 6 January, while Renegades will face Hobart Hurricanes at home the following day.