MEL­BOURNE, Aus­tralia – Cap­tain Hay­ley Matthews reg­is­tered her third straight sin­gle-dig­it score as Mel­bourne Rene­gades ex­tend­ed their wretched run with a chas­ten­ing ten-wick­et de­feat to Perth Scorchers.

Rene­gades ral­lied to 133 for five off their 20 overs af­ter be­ing sent in at Junc­tion Oval on Sat­ur­day, then watched help­less­ly as Scorchers raced to their tar­get in the 12th over, with cap­tain and open­er So­phie Devine belt­ing an un­beat­en 70 off 36 de­liv­er­ies.

The de­feat was their sev­enth straight in nine out­ings and eighth of the cam­paign, leav­ing them rock bot­tom of the Women’s Big Bash League on two points.

Matthews man­aged on­ly eight at the top or­der and now has 107 runs from nine in­nings, at an av­er­age of just un­der 12.

Her high­est score this sea­son was 31 in the first clash with Scorchers ear­li­er this month but the knock re­mains the on­ly time she has passed 20.

Geor­gia Ware­ham top-scored with an un­beat­en 57 off 46 balls with five fours and a six, an­chor­ing a 62-run, un­bro­ken sixth wick­et stand with Josephine Doo­ley (14 not out) to pull Rene­gades around from 71 for five in the 13th over.

Matthews, her side’s lead­ing wick­et-tak­er with ten wick­ets, then came up emp­ty-hand­ed as Devine and Beth Mooney, who struck 47 not out off 32 balls, in­flict­ed fur­ther woes on Rene­gades in a pun­ish­ing open­ing stand.

Devine count­ed two fours and eight six­es while Mooney struck nine fours.

CMC