A horrible start by the Heat, losing James Peirson and recent Test debutant Joe Burns to the first two balls of the match, set the tone for the rest of the innings — and the rest of the match, it later became clear — as they stumbled to a calamitous 7-41 after 10 overs. A restrained 30 from Ben Cutting dragged Brisbane to 80 before they were bowled out in the 18th over.

While there was an expectation the Renegades would saunter to a victory convincing enough to eradicate most of the run-rate damage caused by the first Melbourne derby, they too were stricken at the half-way mark of their innings, at 5-41. Wily Heat captain James Hopes posed the most problems, taking 1-8 bowling his full allocation with the new ball.

The most composure shown by all the Renegades arguably came from their most inexperienced player, Tom Beaton, whose plucky unbeaten 31 from 16 balls was key to the home team reaching the target of 81 with five wickets and six overs to spare in front of a crowd of 17,276. Captain Ben Rohrer, lucky to survive his first two deliveries, was alongside him on 25 at the end of the match that preserved their hopes of making the semi-finals.

The match was, as scheduled, shifted to a fresh pitch since the Renegades crumbled in the preceding match at Etihad. There was, however, no discernible difference in batting productivity as Peirson became the fifth to depart off the first ball of a Australian domestic Twenty20 match, steering a catch to cover. The second scalp, of Burns, looked set to be the moment of the night as James Pattinson fired in a delivery that had enough movement off the seam to beat his inside edge and just full enough to kiss the off-bail.

The introduction of Shakib Al Hasan in the fifth over turned the screws on the Heat. The left-arm spinner removed the Heat's most destructive batsmen, Dan Christian and Chris Lynn, in consecutive overs. Christian's inability to keep his back foot down gave Matthew Wade his fifth stumping of the season in all formats, while Lynn bunted a simple return catch to Al Hasan after underestimating the slowness of the pitch.

if the Heat intended the promotion of bowling all-rounder Jason Floros to number five to steady the innings, it failed miserably as he was bowled for a golden duck.

As if finishing the powerplay at 4-33 was not demoralising enough, the Heat then shed 3-6, including the wicket of mainstay opener Peter Forrest for 26 after his hard cut off the back foot in Fawad Ahmed's first over was claimed, at the second attempt, by Alex Doolan at first slip.

Not all of the damage was down to the pitch or the Renegades' accurate bowling. Andrew Flintoff desperately needed to provide a second innings-saving contribution on as many pitches but lasted only three deliveries after an awful mix-up that saw him stranded in the middle of the pitch. Bowler Al Hasan was able to literally amble to the non-striker's end and remove the bails.

Cutting and Hopes contributed just under half their team's score in their eighth-wicket partnership of 35, but when they departed in consecutive overs it was not a surprise to see the Heat's innings end soon thereafter.

The Renegades' spinners' excelled, with Bangladeshi Al Hasan claiming a team-record 4-13 and leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed continuing his excellent BBL form by equalling the record of the stingiest four-over bowling spell, although his one wicket was trumped by the six taken by fellow record-holder Lasith Malinga two seasons ago.

In response the Renegades lost their top three in the first five overs. Rohrer should have joined then, leaving them at 4-20, but was spared from his first two deliveries: firstly to a plumb leg-before shout, second by Stephen Parry to a low chance at third man.

The Heat's first wicket came courtesy of a fine overhead slips catch by Flintoff to remove Wade off the second ball of the innings, but it did not compare to Christian's reflex take from a Ben Stokes drive bashed back at him. Christian's take in front of his face was so good Stokes incredulously leaned on his bat with his other hand on his hip as he watched Christian celebrate.

Al Hasan's excellence with the ball was contrasted by his effort with the bat when, with the Renegades 4-38, he fecklessly sliced to deep third man. He was at the crease after Ferguson was bowled between bat and pad expecting spin from Englishman Parry.

The best thing about Al Hasan's dismissal was that it brought Beaton to the crease. The 24-year-old's calculated hitting revived the innings and ensured the Renegades got a significant run-rate boost, although not the massive one they would have budgeted for when they went out to bat.