Melbourne Renegades prevail in battle to avoid wooden spoon

Reduced to 19 for 4 inside the powerplay despite a big-name top order, Sydney Thunder were bundled out for 95 and suffered a dismal defeat with 34 balls to spare

Canberra: Sydney Thunder 95, Melbourne Renegades 98-2 - Melbourne Renegades win by eight wickets

Scorecard

Sydney Thunder were hammered by fellow strugglers Melbourne Renegades to leave Rachael Haynes' side in prime position for the Women's Big Bash wooden spoon.

Reduced to 19 for 4 inside the powerplay despite a big-name top order, Thunder were bundled out for 95 and suffered a dismal defeat with 34 balls to spare.

Haynes, who will retire at the end of the competition, has overseen a campaign that has featured just a single win so far in 12 games. She fell without scoring to Georgia Prestwidge after Tammy Beaumont, Phoebe Litchfield and Amy Jones had all fallen for single-figure scores to Ella Hayward, Shabnim Ismail and Georgia Prestwidge.

For Renegades, this was a fine win, missing several key players through the whole tournament and now shorn of their captain, Sophie Molineux, to an ACL injury suffered in their derby defeat by Melbourne Stars on Sunday. In her place, Hayley Matthews won the toss and didn't put a foot wrong thereafter.

^{Thunder were woeful with the bat and were well beaten (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)}

Tahlia Wilson top-scored with 20 for Thunder, for whom South African allrounder Chloe Tryon made just four off 12 balls. Sammy-Jo Johnson (16) and Belinda Vakarewa (15) were the only other players to reach double figures as Prestwidge ended with three wickets and two apiece for Hayward Sarah Coyte.

In reply, there was briefly hope that Sydney might make the run-chase a jittery affair when Chamari Athapaththu fell for nought in the first over.

But Matthews hit six fours and a six in her unbeaten 46, supported well by Josie Dooley (21) and Courtney Webb (25*), to ensure there was no way back for Thunder, whom they have overtaken at the bottom of the league table.

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