Melbourne Renegades 178 for 6 (Fraser-McGurk 70, Shaun Marsh 54, Payne 3-37) beat Adelaide Strikers 177 for 6 (Lynn 56, D’Arcy Short 54, Mujeeb 3-20) by four wickets
Jake Fraser-McGurk grabbed the headlines off record six-hitter Chris Lynn to help Melbourne Renegades to their first BBL win of the season. Chasing Adelaide Strikers’ 177 for 6, in which Lynn belted 56 off 34 balls, Renegades reached their target at Marvel Stadium with four wickets and eight balls to spare, with Fraser-McGurk blasting 70 off 37.
Fraser-McGurk added 75 with Shaun Marsh (54 in 33 balls), with Renegades racing to 123 for 1 in the 12th over, before a late clutter of wickets. Joe Clarke (28* in 19) was there at the end after earlier retiring hurt with a quadriceps issue.
Starting the match on 196 sixes, 33-year-old Lynn brought up No. 200 and also reached his fifty with a massive straight six off Renegades’ captain for the night, Will Sutherland. Lynn also became the first BBL player to reach 3500 runs before skying a delivery from Mujeeb Ur Rahman (3 for 20) to deep extra-cover in the first of the Power Surge overs.
Lynn has moved an incredible 82 sixes ahead of the next in the list, Aaron Finch, but couldn’t prevent Strikers from suffering an eighth consecutive loss.
But Fraser-McGurk, 21, continued his breakout campaign, which has included efforts of 55 in 23 balls against Brisbane Heat and 48 in 24 balls versus Sydney Sixers.
He produced his biggest BBL score on the day, savaging the Strikers attack with his powerful hitting before being yorked by James Bazley.
Marsh, who scored 59 in 36 balls in his only previous innings in the tournament, joined in the fun, taking 16 off the last three balls of Cameron Boyce’s second over.
Renegades’ chase got off to a terrible start with Quinton de Kock out to his first ball and the second of the innings.
All of Lynn’s sixes on Friday came off the quicks, with spinners Mujeeb and Adam Zampa proving harder to hit than their quicker colleagues.
Opener D’Arcy Short (54 in 47) picked up the pace after struggling in the first half of the innings, though he benefited from two dropped return catches from Zampa on 12 and Sutherland on 40. Jamie Overton (29 in 15) and Harry Nielsen (17 in five) added more substance with brisk cameos in an unbroken seventh-wicket stand in the closing overs.
Renegades made a big selection decision before the game, with regular captain and out-of-form batter Nic Maddinson left out of the side.
