A supreme bowling effort from Renegades' star man Muttiah Muralidaran sealed a 48-run win over the Strikers which sends the Melbourne outfit to the top of the ladder.
While his long-time rival has struggled to show his best form in this year's tournament, Muralidaran (3 for 18) looks as good as ever and three wickets in the space of four deliveries all but ended the Strikers' chance of chasing down 156 to win at Docklands.
The Strikers won the toss and sent the Renegades into bat and the game was going their way with the home team's dangermen Aaron Finch (13) and Marlon Samuels (16) back in the sheds for relatively little damage.
Ben Roehrer again showed his worth with a fine 35 before Tom Cooper's 59 lifted the score to 6 for 155.
Nathan Rimmington dismissed both Strikers' openers and Samuels (3 for 16) took the wicket of Callum Ferguson to have the visitors in trouble at 3 for 40 after 7.3 overs.
This situation was made parlous when Muralidaran dismissed Nathan Reardon with the last ball of his second over and then Kieron Pollard and Theo Doropoulos with the first two balls of his third.
Johan Botha (31) and Michael Neser (29 not out) then put on 44 runs for the seventh wicket before Samuels returned to the attack to dismiss the Strikers skipper.
Kane Richardson was then dismissed by the next delivery and the last two wickets fell quickly as the Strikers slipped to a meagre 108 all out.
Tags: sport, cricket, twenty20, melbourne-3000, adelaide-5000 First posted January 02, 2013 22:51:07
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