Last Night’s Big Bash League Game Was A Record-Breaking Flash Of Insanity

The Canes and the Renegades, both fighting it out to keep their finals hopes alive this season, put on one of the most outrageous displays of Twenty20 Cricket ever seen, and certainly the most bonkers game in the six-year history of the BBL.

Multiple league records were smashed in a game that produced a staggering 445 combined runs in 40 overs, with the stands at Etihad Stadium serving less as fan seating and more as cannon fodder as the white pill was dispatched to all corners of the ground time and time again.

A trucked-in deck flatter than a sick kid’s lemonade and some reasonably middling bowling allowed batsmen from both sides to go well beyond full boonta, as the highest overall BBL team score record was broken twice in the same game.

After losing the toss and being sent into bat, the Renegades stormed to a then-record score of 4/222 off their twenty overs, behind some power hitting from captain Aaron Finch (63 off 40) and Tom Cooper (53 off 38), the latter of whom practically glided around the field all night like he had god-mode cheats on.

A total that high would’ve bashed any ordinary opposition into capitulation, and it certainly looked like that was going to happen when Hurricanes opener Tim Paine holed out for a golden duck. But one of the golden rules of cricket – that if a team can make a total, an opposing team can beat it – rang true.

Young upstart Ben McDermott – son of Australian pace bowling great Craig – put on the show to end all shows in just his second BBL game ever, clobbering a ridiculous 114 off just 59 balls – the second highest individual score in BBL history, and the third-fastest century the competition has ever seen – in a display of power hitting that left Renegades fans stunned and one poor little cobber nursing a sore arm after wearing an off-side bullet that flew 20 rows into the ground-level tier.

Despite this, a series of quick wickets late in the innings put the momentum squarely back in Melbourne’s favour. That is until English pace bowler Stuart Broad, of all people, stepped to the crease and covered himself in last-over purple glory, clobbering 9 off the final 3 balls of the game to snatch an improbable win.

So to recap the records that fell during the game:

• Highest BBL team score set by the Renegades (4/222).
• Highest BBL team score subsequently set by the Hurricanes (8/223).
• Most combined runs in a BBL game (445).
• Highest successful BBL run chase.
• 2nd highest individual score in BBL history (Ben McDermott, 114).
• 3rd fastest century in BBL history (Ben McDermott, 101 off 47 balls).
• Equal-2nd highest amount of 6s hit in an individual innings (Ben McDermott, 9).
• Most amount of combined 4s hit in a BBL game (58).

Shit was NUTS.