Boyce creates history but 'Gades crumble in last ball thriller

Cameron Boyce's double hat-trick wasn’t quite enough to see the Melbourne Renegades over the line in an enthralling penultimate game of KFC BBL|11, as the Sydney Thunder crawled over the line for a one-run win in incredible circumstances.

It all came down to the final ball, where the Renegades required two to win with Boyce on strike, a victory seeing them avoid a third straight wooden spoon.

However, it wasn't to be, as Boyce was dismissed by Gurinder Sandhu with Jason Sangha hanging onto the catch for the win.

In a see-sawing contest, Boyce's earlier brilliance was the greatest highlight in a game of many, thrilling with his remarkable display of spin bowling.

The leg-spinner, who is only a few matches into his return from a long stint out of the game, took a remarkable 5-21 from his four overs, with the four consecutive wickets spanning over two separate overs and becoming the highlight of another tough season for the Renegades.

Speaking on Fox Cricket during the second innings, Boyce was humbly credited his standout performance to luck, however said it was enjoyable to be bowling well for his side again.

"That's the game we play sometimes, you can get lucky like that and it's just one of those days," he said.

"It's just really nice to contribute to a decent bowling performance here."

It is just reward for Boyce who missed all of BBL|10 with health concerns, and the 32-year-old said there were stages throughout the past year where he thought his career might be over.

"Last year was obviously quite tough," he said. 

"Some things popped up that I've never experienced before, and we've got a young family now so it's always in the back of your mind what's going to happen in the future.

"Thankfully it came back all clear … and thankfully it's all behind me now.

"I obviously missed out last year which sucked, and to see the team going the way we were and then going into this season, it destroyed me having to sit back and watch."

It was a less than ideal stat for the Renegades who won the toss and sent the Thunder in, with Vodafone Ashes hero and returning skipper Usman Khawaja strolling to the crease with the in-form Alex Hales, who were set to take on the bowlers from the outset after the result of the day's earlier match.

With the Sydney Sixers beating the Brisbane Heat just as this match was beginning, moving them to 35 points and second on the ladder, the Thunder needed both the bash boost point and a comfortable victory to leapfrog them and go on to play the Perth Scorchers in The Qualifier on Saturday night.

The Englishman wasted no time in stamping his authority on the contest, taking 14 off Zak Evans' first over, the second of the match, one that included a monster six straight back over the bowler's head, signalling the intent of the Sydney side.

It was then Khawaja's turn to play aggressor, utilising his trademark ramp and a brutal pull shot off young all-rounder Will Sutherland to back-up Hales' positive start.

All of this had happened in the first three overs, with Hales making the most of the last powerplay over with two more boundaries, while Khawaja struck an enormous six over long-off, leaving the Thunder 0-54 from just four overs.

Zahir Khan was brought into the attack and produced a vital economical over in the fifth, with only five runs coming from the left-arm spinners' bowling, however another expensive Sutherland over kept the Thunder momentum rolling as they reached 75 after six.

The Thunder batters were clearly loving the ball coming onto the bat, a trend identified by Australian T20 captain but ironically stand in 'Gades skipper Aaron Finch, who brought Boyce into the attack for the seventh over.

It was a successful change for a Melbourne side desperately needing to see the back of at least one of the Thunder's openers, with Hales mistiming an attempted straight six off Boyce to be gone for an entertaining 44 off 22 balls.

Jason Sangha advanced down the wicket on the first delivery of the over and missed a sharply spinning leg break to hand Boyce his second wicket in as many balls, as the Hales wicket fell on the last ball of the seventh.

Seemingly unbeknownst to all bar the small MCG crowd, and almost certainly to incoming batter Alex Ross, Boyce was on a hattrick and bowling with great control.

The 'sweepoligist' decided to bring out the reverse variety of his trademark shot at the most inopportune time, and was struck on the pad in his attempt, with the umpire raising his finger to hand Boyce a hattrick that Sam Harper, on the Fox Cricket player mic, said the Renegades hadn’t become aware of until Finch mentioned it in their low-key celebration huddle.

Boyce had created history in that moment as he claimed the first hattrick for the Renegades, however more records were not far away from being broken.

Daniel Sams was in at five for the third ball of Boyce's over and missed another beautiful delivery to be struck on the pad right in front of middle stump, with the umpire eventually raising his finger to confirm Boyce as the first player to take a double-hattrick in BBL history.

The celebrations were this time appropriate for such a rare achievement, with Boyce single-handedly turning the game on its head.

New batter Matthew Gilkes was next in and unsurprisingly wasn't prepared for such a dramatic collapse, only making it out to the middle with one of his allotted 75 seconds to face-up to spare.

Had Gilkes not made it out there in 75 seconds, it would have set up a must-see scenario, where Boyce would've had been awarded a free delivery at the stumps for a chance at an unprecedented triple-hattrick.

The new time out rule has so far not been implemented in BBL|11 and has long been anticipated by many cricket fans, very nearly getting the perfect scenario to make its debut.

But Gilkes was allowed to begin his innings however, and the carnage very nearly continued as he only just made it home for a tight single to mid-on, avoiding what would have been a team-triple-hattrick.

That single brought Khawaja on strike to face his first delivery in only four balls, however it would've felt like an entirely different match to when he had last faced up. He showed some much-needed calmness and experience to see out the remaining balls of Boyce's and the tenth over, as the Thunder came into a necessary break with the score sitting at 4-93 from ten. 

Khawaja reached 50 and after he and Ben Cutting's mature batting in the wake of the earlier carnage, the Thunder were reasonably well placed at 5-135 from 16 overs.

But Boyce returned for his final over, and while the sixth wicket Thunder wicket went to his name, it was this time in the form of a run out, as the near-perfect day he was having got even better.

Khawaja struck a powerful drive back towards Boyce, who barely got a fingertip to it before it crashed it the stumps, and with Cutting short of his ground, he was on his way.

It was an unlucky way to go for Cutting who was just beginning to strike some lusty blows, however his dismissal was the perfect encapsulation of the rarity of the day Boyce was having.

From there, Khawaja struck a few more classic shots to the boundary, however when he was bowled by Evans, his innings of 77 from 51 that had flown under the radar came to an end.

Nathan McAndrew (13 not out) helped the Thunder reach 8-170 from their 20 overs.

Given the Melbourne side's plethora of batting collapses in recent seasons, the Thunder still would've been confident in defending their more than competitive total, and they got off to the best possible start as Gurinder Sandhu picked up the wicket of James Seymour (2) with the second ball of the innings.

That brought the ever-reliable duo of Finch and Shaun Marsh together, who fresh of very nearly guiding the Renegades home against the Hobart Hurricanes last night, set about finishing the season on a high.

Finch and Marsh's partnership reached 50, however it was over soon after, with the later mistiming an uncontrolled lofted drive to give Tanveer Sangha his first wicket.

Unmukt Chand was in at number four and put the nerves he clearly felt from his debut last night behind him, hitting Sams for six off just his second ball.

He and Finch, who was beginning to make the Thunder pay for his earlier reprieve and sent some huge sixes into a building crowd in preparation for the following home Melbourne Stars game, put the Renegades in a winning position at 2-77 at the halfway point.

Overs eleven to thirteen were evenly split, but the power surge was taken by the 'Gades for the fourteenth and loomed as a key turning point in the run chase.

It yielded only 22 runs however despite 16 coming from the first, as meaning the Renegades required 47 from their final five overs.

Things were made tougher when Chand (29 off 22) holed out to long-off again off Tanveer Sangha, but Jono Merlo's boundaries off his first two balls, both from reverse sweeps, flipped the momentum of the contest yet again.

An expensive 18th over put the Renegades in the box seat, with Finch's hard running between the wickets a feature of his innings and looking like the key to a Melbourne victory, with just 13 required from the last two overs.

But the twists and turns of this match weren't done, as Merlo was gone with the score at 161, bringing Harper to the crease, who took the strike for the final over with nine runs to win.

A dot, and then some unbelievable fielding from Jason Sangha at short mid-wicket to run Harper out then put the Thunder back in the ascendancy as the Renegades still required nine, now with only four balls to go.

It did bring Finch back on strike however, but tragedy struck, when the opener hit it in the air to deep mid-wicket where Sams took a diving catch, to send him on his way.

It now seemed as if the Thunder would steal victory, but Sutherland remedied his earlier bowling with a huge six, the Renegades now requiring three off two balls.

A single off the next meant two were needed off the last ball, and remarkable, it was Boyce who would face it with the chance to top off his night and claim victory for his side.

Sandhu and his almost all his Thunder teammates huddled to decipher where he should deliver the final delivery, with all parties tense in anticipation.

You would think the script would see Boyce hit the winning runs, however, it wasn't to be as he struck Sandhu's delivery straight to Jason Sangha at backward point, meaning the Thunder hung on by a solitary run.

It was a harsh way to end both Boyce's successful night and the Renegades' season, however it made for one of the matches of the season.

Sandhu was the match winner for the Thunder, finishing with 3-33, however the win wasn't sizable enough to see them leapfrog the Sixers.