The encounter between Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Thunder in Melbourne turned out to be an eventful one. While Thunder stole away a win by just 1 run, Renegades’ Boyce created history after he bagged four wickets on the trot to eventually end with a fifer.
The Sydney Thunder team had a brilliant start to the proceedings, courtesy an aggressive partnership between Alex Hales and Usman Khawaja. The two batters put on 80 runs on the board before Hales was undone on the final delivery of the seventh over for 44 off 22.
Unmukt Chand who made his BBL debut in the previous game took a good catch around the ling off region off Boyce. The spinner then came back for his second over and bagged wickets on the first three deliveries which included the dismissals of Jason Sangha, Ross and Daniel Sams.
The right-arm bowler just didn’t stop here and bagged his fifth wicket in the form of Matthew Gikes to eventually return with figures of 5/21 in 4 overs. But Khawaja held the fort for his side at the other end and chipped in with a valuable 77 off 51 that helped Thunder side to put 170/8 in 20 overs.
Later, the Melbourne Renegades suffered an early blow but Aaron Finch and Shaun Marsh once again steadied the ship for the side with a 59-run stand before the latter departed for 19 off 16. Finch was then joined by Unmukt and the two compiled a total of 68 runs for the third wicket. Chand was eventually dismissed for 29 off 22 by Sangha.
While Renegades lost wickets at regular intervals, Finch tried to stick around and notched up 82 off 64 but he was eventually out on the third delivery of the final over.
The Renegades needed 2 off one delivery with Boyce on strike but he failed to take his side over the line as they were restricted to 169/7 in 20 overs. While Sams returned with impressive figures of 1/22 in 4 overs, Sandhu had three scalps to his name for 33 runs in his four overs and Sangha picked up a couple of wickets at the cost of 32 runs in his allotted 4 overs.