Johnson, Perth stay perfect in BBL|07

The scores: Melbourne Renegades 9-130 (Cooper 34, Johnson 3-13, Tye 3-37) lost to Perth Scorchers 7-133 (Klinger 37, Hogg 2-16) by three wickets with six balls remaining

The match in a tweet: The blockbuster match didn't disappoint! Johnson fired, Hogg was pumped up and a chaotic finish capped of a terrific fixture. 

The hero: Mitchell Johnson is bowling as good as ever and the Renegades can confirm it. The veteran struck in his first over when he removed ‘Gades skipper Aaron Finch caught behind for a duck. With his 11th ball – a trademark nasty bouncer – Cameron White was out fending to short fine-leg. And in his final over, the 13th of the innings, he returned to castle veteran and birthday boy Brad Hodge with a brilliant yorker. It was the very best of Mitchell Johnson – sans facial hair – wrapped up in a four-over package of 3-13.

The support cast: Andrew Tye keeps taking wickets. While he got hit around tonight, the right-armer claimed 3-37 to extend his lead atop the BBL|07 wicket-taker’s list. He removed the dangerous Tom Cooper for a team-high 34, Afghanistan import Mohammad Nabi and free-swinging wicketkeeper Tim Ludeman. He now has 12 wickets in three matches, four more wickets than his closest rival, Renegades allrounder Dwayne Bravo.         

The consolation effort: Brad Hogg was brilliant against his old club. He bowled the dangerous David Willey – and gave him a massive send-off! – and fellow spinner Ashton Agar comfortably stumped in his four-over spell of 2-16. At 46 he was a sprightly as ever is still one of the best spinners in the competition.

The return: It had been 1,104 days between BBL matches for James Muirhead, who played just his second match for the Scorchers. Muirhead was traded by Melbourne Stars for Michael Beer in 2014 but has spent most of that time on the sidelines. There was a bit of rust in the 24-year-old’s performance in the form of the odd long-hop before he finished with 0-16 from two overs.

The run-out: Tim Ludeman showed clever match awareness to knock the broken stumps out of the ground and run out Scorchers skipper Adam Voges, whose bat got stuck in the gound upon sliding to safety. You don't see this everyday! 

The rare sighting: Before the 19th over of the first innings, Hogg had taken 17 more wickets in the BBL than he had faced deliveries (57 to 40). It’s not often the tongue-wagging wrist-spinner makes an appearance at the crease with bat in hand but he did tonight. And he didn’t look out of place. Not one bit. He only faced one ball, from speedster Tye, and nonchalantly whipped a full delivery to the leg-side for one.

The stat: For the first time in Aaron Finch’s prolific BBL career he has strung together three consecutive single-figure scores. He’s started BBL|07 with 4, 8 and 0 tonight when he edged Scorchers speedster Mitchell Johnson to the wicketkeeper.

The next moves: Perth head to Brisbane to take on Chris Lynn and the Heat on January 5, while Melbourne and Sydney Sixers play the first-ever BBL match in Geelong.