Sydney Thunder’s opening duo of Alex Hales and Usman Khawaja were at their brutal best in the starting six overs of their innings as the Melbourne Renegades bowlers perished no matter where they bowled on a belter of a MCG strip. Hales was powering along and his partner Khawaja was timing the ball to perfection and being cheeky as they raced along to 75 for no loss after six.
Then came in Cameron Boyce, Renegades’ experienced leg-spinner whose first five deliveries were beautiful leggies. Flight, guile, drift and turn, Boyce’s deliveries had it all. He broke the ominous opening partnership as Alex Hales was holed out at long-off. In the second over of his spell, Boyce sent Jason Sangha packing as he was stumped while trying to step-out to a slowed-up stock delivery. Boyce was on a hattrick, and Thunder’s Alex Ross played a ridiculous stroke, a reverse sweep and was given out. If it wasn’t crazy enough already, Daniel Sams, the next man in was also trapped plumb in front on his very first ball. Boyce had picked a double hattrick. 4 in 4.
In just two overs, Cameron Boyce had not just put the brakes on the Sydney Thunder onslaught, but put the Renegades well and truly in front. And the leg spinner wasn’t done. In his third over of the spell, he picked up his fifth. He also inflicted a run out off his own bowling. Boyce ended with figures of 5/21 in his four overs. It was insane viewing, a comeback nobody had seen coming.
The runs soon became hard to come by and the Renegades pacers did well to dry up the scoring with change of pace deliveries bowled on a back of a length. Thunder ended up on 170/8, a surprisingly par score after their rollicking start.
The men in red started off poorly as their opener James Seymour was caught off a well directed bumper by Gurindar Sandhu on his very second ball. Skipper Aaron Finch then strung together a 59 run partnership with Shaun Marsh. Once Marsh was dismissed, it was level-pegging. Unmukt Chand was the next man in, the first Indian male to play in the BBL. Despite a disappointing debut the previous night, he looked in complete control this time around as he hooked Sams for a six over fine leg early on in his innings. He went on to play a few more gems, one six over midwicket and one boundary over the bowler’s head.
Aaron Finch too, on the other end was rotating the strike well and putting the odd bad ball away to the fence. The way the Renegades were cruising along, 10 off the last over looked as though it would be easily chased down.
But Gurindar Sandhu had other plans as he hit the hard length brilliantly. Jason Sangha was sharp at midwicket with a dive to run out Sam Harper. With 9 off 4, the well-set Finch slogged one to deep midwicket and got caught. It was nail-biting stuff. Sutherland off his very first ball flat-batted Sandhu for a six off long on and it looked as though that would seal the deal. But Sandhu bowled a magnificent wide yorker on the penultimate ball of the game.
The man who had all the limelight on him in the first innings was on strike to face the final ball with two to get. It would’ve been the stuff dreams are made off had Cameron Boyce finished it off. But as the old adage goes, Cricket is a leveler. Boyce cut a short and wide ball straight to point and the Renegades fell short of the target by one run. Boyce was distraught and just knelt down in disappointment in the middle of the MCG. Could’ve been his greatest day on a Cricket field, but it wasn’t meant to be. Boyce’s brilliance couldn’t suffice.
– Vibhor Dubey
The Average Cricketer 