The bottom two sides in the Big Bash League table meet in the competition on Tuesday when the Melbourne Renegades host the Perth Scorchers in a clash between two teams who know how to go all the way in this competition.
Unfortunately for both of them, they have not begun this season very well at all, and it seems unlikely either of them will be around for the business stages of the event, with a defeat here only making that likelihood more of a possibility.
Melbourne Renegades
It is almost beyond belief the record of the Melbourne Renegades this season. The Melbourne derby defeat last time out was the sixth in a row for the defending champions, leaving them not just without a single point this term, but also stranded at the foot of the table. It might already be too late for them to recover their disastrous start but it goes without saying that this is now must win for them if they are to have any hope of defending their title successfully.
The problem the Renegades have now, apart from a lack of confidence through their results, is that neither area of their side is functioning like it can. Their bowling has been ordinary all season and now their batting is beginning to wilt under the weight of expectation and that is the last thing that they can afford. They are going to have to do something different, whether that is personnel, sacrificing someone or something to give themselves a lift.
Perth Scorchers
It hasn’t been a whole lot better for the Perth Scorchers. They have only won two of their six matches and one of those was the reverse meeting between these two which doesn’t count for much on a form guide right now. The Scorchers have been beaten in a few high scoring matches this term, which is unlike them as we are used to their bowling attack being quite miserly and their batting not full of risks.
That has all changed now though. They have a batting line up which is a lot more gung ho, although it probably isn’t as good on the whole as it might have been, with some key men departing the scene recently. The big worry though is how many their bowling is going for. They actually had a bowler go for 25 from four overs against the Hobart Hurricanes last time out and still went for 180. That is the trend they will need to turnaround if they are to climb the table.
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Team News
Melbourne Renegades have made three changes to their squad. Samit Patel was signed as cover for his Nottinghamshire teammate Harry Gurney who is injured and he goes straight in along with Andrew Fekete and Marcus Harris. Tom Cooper, Joe Mennie and Jack Wildermuth miss out.
The Perth Scorchers have also made an alteration to their squad with Sam Whiteman coming back into it in place of Nick Hobson. Ashton Turner is still missing with the illness that ruled him out of the loss to the Hurricanes at the weekend.
Betting
I’m expecting to see plenty of boundaries over in Geelong. We saw plenty of them in the first match here this season between the Melbourne Renegades and the Sydney Thunder and there were certainly loads of them in the reverse meeting between these two sides in Perth. Over at Optus Stadium these two combined for 40 boundaries, which was on a smaller ground but shows that these two attacks offer little panic to the batsmen on show.
The first game here in Geelong wasn’t the highest scoring game of all time with 169/5 playing 171/4 but there were still 39 boundaries in the game. I’m not sure this will be too much lower scoring than that one, if it is lower at all so I’m expecting the boundaries to come fairly regularly. I’m a little surprised that the boundaries line here is down at 35.5 because both these batting line ups have power deep in their order. I’ll play the over on this line.
Tips
WON – Back Over 35.5 boundaries for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
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