Shane Warne and Marlon Samuels were involved in an ugly confrontation as Melbourne Renegades secured a home semi-final in the Big Bash League in front of a record crowd for domestic cricket in Australia.

THE Melbourne derby turned ugly as a bloodied and battered Marlon Samuels went to war with the ill-fated Melbourne Stars.

Renegade by name and nature, Samuels, already a magnet for controversy through this Big Bash League, took matters to a new level on the night his team secured top spot with an emphatic nine-wicket win at the MCG.

But a record domestic Twenty20 crowd of 46,581 are more likely to recall a series of incidents rarely seen in cricket highlighted by Samuels hurling his bat past a livid Shane Warne and the West Indian later being taken to hospital with a suspected serious eye injury after being hit by a bouncer.

The Stars, plunged into a desperate race to qualify for the finals, were unsure Samuels had taken a catch to dismiss Brad Hodge early in their innings of 9-146..