Tag: Melbourne Renegades

Melbourne Renegades are one of the teams in Australia’s premier T20 competition – the Big Bash League (BBL). The franchise represents Melbourne in the league.

The Renegades play their home matches at Marvel Stadium, in Melbourne’s Docklands precinct, whilst also using Geelong’s GMHBA Stadium for home matches. Currently, they are led by Australia opener Aaron Finch and coached by Andrew McDonald.

History:

2011–2012 season:

Victorian allrounder Andrew McDonald led the Renegades in the inaugural season while Victorian Bushrangers one-day coach Simon Helmot coached the team. In their first season, the Renegade signed local state players such as Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell, Brad Hodge and Dirk Nannes, along with Pakistani imports Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq. The Renegades struggled in their first season, only winning two games against the Sydney Thunder and the Sydney Sixers irrespectively. Aaron Finch top-scored for the side, scoring 259 runs while Shahid Afridi finished with most wickets, picking up ten wickets.

2012-13 season:

After a disastrous inaugural season, the Renegades took some bold calls before the second edition. They released several high-profile names including the previous seasons captain, Andrew McDonald. They then went on to rope in players like Ben Rohrer and Peter Nevill and cricket legend Muttiah Muralitharan. The results soon followed as Renegades enjoyed their most successful season to date, finishing on top of the ladder, only losing to the Perth Scorchers in the regular season. Aaron Finch also became the first Renegades player to score a century after scoring 111 from 65 balls against the Melbourne Stars. Their season ended with the 15-run defeat to eventual winners Brisbane Heat in the semifinal.

2013-14 season:

Buoyed by the impressive season in the last edition, the Renegades retained the majority of their squad. In addition, they also signed Australia speedsters Peter Siddle and James Pattinson to bolster the squad. However, they failed to replicate the performances of the previous seasons. They only won 3 games, and in the process finished 6th and missing the finals.

2014-15 season:

Just like the previous season, the Renegades entered yet another season by signing some high-profile names. The Melbourne-based outfit secured the services of Matthew Wade and Callum Ferguson. But they again came up with a poor performance and  failed to qualify for the finals yet again, finishing 6th. They never got the momentum during the season and managed to win just 3 games out of eight. The poor run from the previous season resulted in the coach Simon Helmot being sacked.

2015-16 season:

Ahead of the 2015-16 season, Renegades hired David Saker as their head coach. They also brought in experienced players like Cameron White, Xavier Doherty and Chris Gayle to strengthen their squad. However, it paid little dividends. The Renegades finished better than the previous seasons but still failed to qualify for the finals. They started the season with a win over Brisbane Heat but lost the next three games.  In the remaining four games, they won two to end at fifth position.

2016-17 season:

Former skipper Andrew McDonald replaced David Saker as head coach but the team’s fortunes did not improve.  They started the season on a good note, winning two of the first three games. However, defeats in the next three games all but ended their hopes of making it to the final. Eventually, they managed to win just 4 games and ended at fifth position.

2017-18 season:

Finally after four seasons of disappointment, the Renegades made it to the finals in 2017-18 season. They began the season on a strong note,  winning four of their first five games. They, however, managed to win just 2 of the remaining five but managed to enter the semifinal as the third-best team in the league. But their journey ended in the semifinal with a heartbreaking 1-run loss to eventual winners Adelaide Strikers.

Here are some other details about the team:

Most runs:

Most wickets:

Most dismissals as wicketkeeper:

Current squad:

*Stats and squad updated before the start of BBL 2018-19