The loss which leaves the Sydney Thunder's finals hopes hanging in the balance brings with it so many questions.
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Why did the competition's leading wicket taker Daniel Sams only bowl three overs? How can you bounce back from two wins in six games at the business end of the season?
But the most pertinent is perhaps this: is the season slipping away after dropping a game to the previously winless Melbourne Renegades by 12 runs (DLS) at Manuka Oval on Wednesday?
"As a group you probably can't think that can you? Because as soon as that's your thought process, you're probably gone already," Thunder batsman Alex Ross said.
"We think we're pretty close. Those are the results you'd like to go your way, when they don't it's pretty frustrating because it could look so different.
"These are the things that do happen in tournament cricket, we need to try to keep winning the other games to push ourselves up.
"The best team will win the comp. If we're going to be the best team, we've got to keep on winning.
MORE CANBERRA SPORT
"I didn't know it was that poor, the record [in the past six games]. Our match-ups are good, our planning and our training is all really good. If we stick to those basics, we'll come off more often than not."
The heavens opened above Manuka Oval to help the Renegades end their drought in front of 9005 in the capital.
Sam Harper (52) carried the torch to lead the Renegades to 4-172 before Sydney's run chase was halted at 3-31 from 5.5 overs.
It would resume with the home side in need of a miracle - they now needed 135 from a total of 14 overs. It seemed as though Ross (51 from 27) would be the man to deliver after taking 26 runs off Mohammad Nabi in the 12th.
Alas it wasn't to be as the Renegades posted their first win of the season, with the Thunder finishing on 7-122.
The rain affected clash marked the second time in as many BBL games in Canberra the weather has had a say in the outcome.
The Thunder's clash with the Adelaide Strikers was abandoned last month due to a heavy blanket of smoke which settled above the city and saw conditions deemed unsafe.
Little more than a week after being told to put down their tools due to the hazardous air quality across the city, Manuka Oval curator Brad Van Dam's team were kept on their toes all night in the capital.
Players came off with a revised total the Thunder would find it near impossible to run down, making Dan Christian's decision to bat first seem a masterstroke.
When Shaun Marsh had earlier made this way to the Sir Donald Bradman Stand for 47 in what seemed a near effortless knock, the Renegades looked poised to post an imposing target.
Perhaps even more so when Renegades batsman Beau Webster cleared that very same stand on the second ball he faced.
Then it was 23-year-old Harper who rose to the occasion.
"It's been a tough four or five weeks for us, but we've hung in there and we've got a good spirit around the group," Harper said.
"It's a reward that we got our campaign underway eventually. We've got great young players. A fair few of the boys are on multi-year deals.
"We'll keep sticking together as a group. It's a fickle game, Twenty20, we're not that far away from how we played last year.
"It's just little things which have been frustrating but we'll just keep sticking together."
Yet even in victory on this night, the day they lifted the trophy as champions seems a world away.
AT A GLANCE
Big Bash League:
MELBOURNE RENEGADES 4-172 (Sam Harper 52, Shaun Marsh 47; Liam Bowe 2-23, Nathan McAndrew 1-22) bt SYDNEY THUNDER 7-122 (Alex Ross 51, Alex Hales 31; Daniel Christian 3-14, Andrew Fekete 1-13) by 12 runs (DLS method) at Manuka Oval. Crowd: 9005.