Late cameos from Glenn Maxwell and Hilton Cartwright have lifted the Stars to a thrilling five-wicket Melbourne Derby win over the Renegades that keeps their slim BBL finals chances alive.

The pair used all of their big-hitting experience to steer the Stars to victory with two balls to spare in front of 40,606 fans at the MCG.

Maxwell and fellow veteran Hilton Cartwright came to the rescue late after Ben Duckett (67) and Marcus Stoinis (48) fell in quick succession during the power-play following a crucial 83-run partnership.

Maxwell's reverse sweep in the 19th off Gurinder Sandhu (3-29) changed the momentum of the match.

But Cartwright's giant six from the third ball of the final over ensured the Stars would record back-to-back wins after starting the season 0-5.

Capping off a horror night for Tom Rogers, the Renegades quick bowled the final over after previously dropping a tough chance off Maxwell (20no).

The matchwinning knock from Cartwright (24no) is more remarkable given he suffered a scary injury in the field at the start of this BBL.

Played on a pitch with more grass on it than is the norm in the BBL, the Renegades weren't able to defend their 7-168 after being sent in to bat.

The Renegades were sitting on top of the table, but three-straight losses leaves them 2-4 and in a real battle to qualify for finals.

They have concerns with the form of young blaster Jake Fraser-McGurk at the top of the order.

After dominating in the Indian Premier League last year, Fraser-McGurk has struggled for runs all season, making just 67 of them across the first six games of this BBL.

The 22-year-old, who played for Australia as recently as November, missed the first four balls of his innings before holding out for 12.

Australian white-ball spinner Adam Zampa was booed by the Stars crowd, who he played for up until last season.

Young English star Jacob Bethell (49) and veteran Jono Wells (45) were the Renegades' best with the bat, putting on a 71-run partnership.

Mirroring some incidents in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Test series, TV umpire Simon Lightbody took almost five minutes to give Star batter Dan Lawrence out after the Renegades were convinced the Englishman had hit the ball.

Fraser-McGurk said he would have gone "bananas" if Lawrence wasn't dismissed.

"I looked up at Lawrence and he said 'yeah, I think I hit that'," Fraser-McGurk told Fox Cricket.

"It would have been amazing if that was given not out."