Two undefeated sides meet in the one match in the Big Bash League on Friday when the Melbourne Stars host the Adelaide Strikers in Carrara with top spot the reward at stake for whichever of the two comes out on top.
There has already been one match on this ground this season, the Melbourne Stars coming out on top in a pretty high scoring encounter against the Brisbane Heat, and they’ll be looking to repeat that success here.
Melbourne Stars
That was one of two wins the Melbourne Stars have had this season and on both occasions a feature of their success has been their international or standout stars producing the goods and that is often the key in these franchise tournaments. It was Glenn Maxwell in the first game and Marcus Stoinis in the second and with plenty more internationals up their sleeve you already get the impression this will be a decent campaign for the Stars.
If you were worrying about their progress then it might come in the form of what happens when Haris Rauf departs the scene. We are going to find out the answer to that question here, but when you look down the bowling resources of the Melbourne Stars there probably isn’t a need for concern. One issue I do have with the Stars is they have a couple of batsmen who aren’t performing to their best which could become an issue.
Adelaide Strikers
In terms of completed matches it is one win from one played for the Adelaide Strikers. They have been involved in another game against the Sydney Thunder which they came out on the wrong side of the smoke in. You would think they would have gone on to lose that game but the truth is that we’ll never really know whether that would be the case or not. The one thing we can be sure of is that they played well in their win over the Perth Scorchers.
They took the Perth attack to the cleaners in that match and although they shelled a few runs themselves, especially at the top of the innings but when it looked like they were going to be beaten they rallied and got over the line. That is often the sign of a good team. The quest for them here is to find some bowling mite and back up that win in their first full outing. If they can do that this could be a decent season for the Strikers too.
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Team News
The big news is that Dale Steyn and Nathan Coulter-Nile are both in line for their debuts in this match. Haris Rauf has been cast aside now with Steyn and Sandeep Lamichhane the overseas players.
Peter Siddle has been included in the Adelaide Strikers squad for this match after he wasn’t selected for the Australia match at the MCG. He replaces Liam O’Connor in the squad but the Strikers are again without their captain Travis Head who is on international duty.
Betting
The Gold Coast has already been kind to Melbourne Stars once this season and it could be again here but the Adelaide Strikers are no mugs so I’m in no massive rush to get stuck into the match betting here I have to say. It might be that Adelaide don’t mind this test as they are used to playing on an oval and having to adjust their bowling plans in line with that accordingly.
The bet I like here is for over 37.5 boundaries. We saw plenty of them here in the first game and when you think the likes of Nic Maddinson, Ben Dunk, Marcus Stoinis, Chris Lynn and Ben Cutting – five pretty clean hitters of a cricket ball – combined for just three boundaries there is the potential for a lot more to come. Since then the Stars have got a couple more players into form while Adelaide have shown their power and touch. It looked a great wicket here first time round and I’m expecting the same here so I’ll take over 37.5 boundaries
Tips
Back Over 37.5 boundaries for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
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