The last match of the Big Bash League regular season completes the triple header of action on Wednesday and it sees the Melbourne Stars completing their campaign with a home match against the Hobart Hurricanes.
This is just a dead rubber for the Melbourne Stars, who saw their playoff qualifying hopes dashed when the Hurricanes beat the other Melbourne side on Tuesday. The Hurricanes could still finish fourth with a win here but that is only significant if home advantage is used in the playoffs.
Melbourne Stars
The Melbourne Stars have battled hard to reach the postseason but they could never put a string of wins together which would have catapulted them right into the mix. They were always just slightly behind the eight ball and relying on other results to help them and finally the door was shut on them on Tuesday. They will rightly look to Covid as a reason why they haven’t got the job done this term but at the same time there was a costly defeat to the Adelaide Strikers a couple of matches ago which had they won could have made things very different.
As a rule though, the Stars’ batting just hasn’t come to the party often enough. They have excelled against the two teams below them in the table but when it has come to getting stuck in against the better sides they have either got off to poor starts or just not been able to put a key partnership together when they have needed it. In the main their bowlers have gone pretty well recently. They haven’t conceded more than 155 in any of their last three matches.
Hobart Hurricanes
The Hobart Hurricanes started the week knowing they had to win one of their final two matches to be playing playoff cricket over the weekend and they got that job done at the first opportunity to take the pressure off of this encounter. Although it means having to back up a performance one day later, Hobart will now be looking for a third successive victory which would have them in a good place heading into knockout cricket on Friday.
Slowly but surely there are more Hobart batters who are coming into form and that is exactly what they needed going into the finals. They now get a key bowler back from here on in so that will also give them a boost and if they can continue to bat well for another week, they are not just challengers for this match but they could be dark horses for the whole tournament despite having to win four straight matches from Friday onwards.
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Team News
The Melbourne Stars have named a 17-man squad for this match but it would be extremely likely that they will go into this one with the same XI that they used to demolish the Brisbane Heat last time out.
The Hobart Hurricanes were hoping to have Scott Boland back for this final match of the regular season and they have their wish although whether they throw him straight in or wait until the eliminator on Friday remains to be seen.
Betting
This is another match which I don’t really want to get too deeply involved in because there really isn’t a huge amount on it. You would imagine the Melbourne Stars would want to go out with a win in front of their home fans so I would probably favour them but they are already out of the competition because they are so inconsistent so I wouldn’t be backing them with any real confidence and that isn’t a situation I like to bet in.
I’ll go with a performance though which comes in the shape of Tim David. He clubbed an unbeaten 46 against the Melbourne Renegades on Tuesday and if I think back to his county days last year when he got into form he maintained it for a while and that was also the case in the Caribbean Premier League. He has a performance line of 23.5 in this one and I think that is attainable for him. He could cover it with the bat if his innings on Tuesday gets him up the order over Jordan Thompson who came in before him but on a pitch which is being used for the second time in the day he might well sling an over or two of off spin down. He also fields in busy positions so I think there is enough juice to take the over here.
Tips
Back T.David’s Performance – Over 23.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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