Two teams at opposite ends of the Big Bash League table meet in the one game in the competition on Wednesday when the Brisbane Heat take on the defending champions Perth Scorchers in another key match at The Gabba.
The Heat begin the match second from bottom in the table and could really do with a win here as the top five have got away from them. Perth sit second in the standings and will take the lead if they come out on top.
Brisbane Heat
The Brisbane Heat have two wins and a washout from eight matches and while they have two games in hand of the fifth placed Melbourne Renegades they are now five points behind then so they are going to need to find a winning run if they are going to make it through to the final stages of the competition. They will be boosted by the return of their three Test stars for this match but they are realistically only replacing overseas stars who have departed.
Brisbane went big on their batting unit this season and while that has paid off in terms of the runs they have scored in recent times, we did see the flip side of that in Perth when a sizeable total got chased down with ease because so much of their budget has gone into ensuring they score runs. While they get Marnus Labuschagne, Matt Renshaw and Usman Khawaja back here, they aren’t going to do a huge amount for their bowling so the Heat need someone to step up.
Perth Scorchers
The Perth Scorchers are always one of the teams to beat in this competition and this season has been no different. They have played eight matches and won six of them and in the main they have looked a very good side. There are one or two chinks in their armour developing though because injuries are starting to hit them hard and overseas players are coming and going so the champions have a point to prove in this match even allowing for the fact that they won last time out.
It is with the ball that Perth are just starting to have their resources tested. Mitchell Marsh was ruled out of the competition before it began and now Jhye Richardson is out for the remainder of the league phase. That leaves Andrew Tye and Jason Behrendorff as the senior bowlers and then they are scrambling around with some younger bowlers and part-timers. That will put more emphasis on their batting but to be fair they are not short of quality in that department.
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Key Players
Brisbane Heat were crying out for Marnus Labuschagne to come back into their ranks, not just to provide an elite batting option but also to take the pace off the ball with his spin bowling which could be useful as wickets tire. He could be key for the Heat.
Aaron Hardie was shoved up to bat at number three in the reverse meeting between these two last time out and duly responded with a half century. His bowling could be needed at some point in the match so he too feels like a key performer here.
Betting
We have only had two matches at The Gabba this season but both have been pretty high scoring and full of boundaries and with the way these two bowling attacks have maybe not been decimated but are lacking key stars then you have to think that is a trend which is going to continue. The one thing these two teams aren’t short of is sweet hitters of a cricket ball and we saw that in the game in Perth where the boundaries flowed throughout.
Brisbane have really caught fire with the bat since Josh Brown came into the side and with Khawaja and Labuschagne back for this match there is no reason to think their batting is going to weaken at all. The same can be said of the Scorchers who just clouted 22 boundaries on a big Optus Stadium setup. The boundaries for this match is set at 35.5 which is one which I think the batters on these two teams can cover.
Tips
Back Over 35.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
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