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Glenn Maxwell has revealed his frustration after Melbourne Stars collapsed to hand the Big Bash League title to rivals Melbourne Renegades.
Both clubs were seeking a maiden Big Bash League title but only one could prevail at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne.
The Renegades made 145-5 from their 20 overs as Tom Cooper hit 43 not out, while Dan Christian ended the innings unbeaten on 38.
The Stars looked well on track to surpass that total when they reached 93-0 after 13 overs, however, they appeared to lose their nerve.
Marcus Stoinis fell for 39 and his departure sparked a collapse as they lost seven wickets for 19 runs in 29 balls.
Ultimately, they ended up 13 runs short and Maxwell, who will head off to India for Australian white ball duties on Monday, admits the defeat was tough to take but has called on the squad to use the memory as motivation next season.
Maxwell said: “We were so close. For eight overs it looked like we were winners. It’s hard to take right now. “You could feel that on the boundary, we needed to kill the game a little bit earlier, go harder at the start while the ball was hard and just get ahead of the run rate.
“You can kill games in the power play when you are chasing scores like that, and 0-36 is great, but it was that sort of game, we probably needed to go harder. That’s all in hindsight. “This will probably drive us next year, and we can use it as good motivation to go one step further.”
