A drama-filled Melbourne derby culminated at the end of the opening innings on Tuesday night when Melbourne Stars captain Adam Zampa attempted a 'Mankad' dismissal on Renegades tail-ender Tom Rogers.

The Renegades were 7/139, having been forced into batting after Zampa won the toss, when Zampa elected to halt his bowling action midway through his fourth and final over of the match.

With Rogers some distance out of his crease, Zampa swiftly turned around and dislodged the bails at the bowler's end with ball-in-hand before signalling out to umpire Gerard Abood.

The decision was sent to the third umpire, which ruled the dismissal not out as vision of Zampa showed the spinner's bowling arm had passed its highest point and was at an angle where he would usually release the ball for a delivery.

Despite the MCG being home to mostly Melbourne Stars fans, the incident was met with a wave of boos from the grandstands.

Speaking to Channel 7ย post-match, Zampa said he opted for the Mankad after Rogers had left his crease prematurely the ball before.

"The ball before I was bowling to Mackenzie Harvey, and as someone who was bowling the 20th over you want to be bowling to the bowlers, and I felt like Tom Rogers took advantage of that the ball before," Zampa said.

"Somehow Tom Rogers was almost at Mackenzie Harvey by the time (my delivery) had hit the ground."

Zampa detailed that he was unaware of the ruling that required a bowler's arm to be held behind a vertical line to dismiss a player through with a Mankad attempt properly.

"I'm not sure what decision I would have went with once the ruling had been made," he added, via Cricket.com.au.ย 

"But basically, Gerard said straight away 'you finished your action, I don't think it's out' so it didn't matter.

"As soon as Gerard said that I knew it wasn't going to be out because I'd known how far my arm had come over.

"I didn't know the (vertical) rule, I thought you actually had to let the ball go โ€ฆ but apparently it's if you've finished your action and they can assume you've bowled the ball then they're allowed to leave the crease."

The Renegades would go on to win the match by 33 runs thanks to an envigorated Rogers, who claimed career-best figures of 5/16ย  as the Stars put on just the 108 runs from 20 overs.

The loss for Zampa's men sees their finals chances wane further, with the Stars placed in seventh with just two wins from their seven matches.

The Renegades snapped a four-game losing streak with the victory, bringing up their fourth win of the tournament to return to third place on the BBL table.