The Big Bash League heads back to Sydney on Friday when two undefeated sides battle it out as the Sydney Sixers look to move into second place in the table when they entertain a powerful looking Adelaide Strikers outfit.
Sydney have played a couple of matches in this competition this season and have won them both while the Strikers have won the only completed game they have featured in so there is plenty to look forward to in this one.
Sydney Sixers
The Sydney Sixers have played a couple of matches this term and won them both relatively comfortably but they haven’t been on the field for 11 days so it will be interesting to see if they have carried their momentum forward or whether they have gone a little bit rusty. They have won a game when defending a score and the other when they have been set a target to chase and when teams do that they immediately go up in my estimations.
We always know that whichever bowling attack the Sixers name they are going to be strong and with Sean Abbott back for this game that doesn’t look like being any different this time around, although it should be noted that Tom Curran begins a bizarre suspension in this match so they will need to do without him. The Sixers are never the flashiest with the bat but they consistently get the job done, helped by the fact that their bowlers often restrict the opposition to totals that doesn’t need plenty of risks to be taken to reach. I don’t see that changing here.
Adelaide Strikers
The Adelaide Strikers were made to watch the rain fall in their opening match, although that was against the Brisbane Heat who have won their other three matches so there is a case to be made that the weather did them a favour on that occasion. Having had to wait a while to get onto the field they made full use of their time off as they looked very good in taking care of the Sydney Thunder earlier in the week. This isn’t a competition where big run chases are nailed regularly so for the Strikers to chase down 200+ certainly catches the eye.
You only have to look at the Strikers squad to see that this is a side who are going to do their best work with the bat this season. They look light with the ball and in the only match they have played so far they have coughed up over 200 runs. This is a team who when they were going around the park in previous seasons they would throw the ball to Rashid Khan and he would either take a wicket or bowl an economical over and get them back into the game. They are still coming to terms with him not being around and they’ll need to do it quickly if they are going to compete for the title.
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Key Players
If the Sydney Sixers can get after the Adelaide bowling then they could easily find that the job gets easier so Josh Philippe could really set the tone for the match in his innings. He isn’t going to hang around so if he gets near the halfway mark of the 20 overs he will have the Sixers well placed.
Matt Short was brutal in the run chase against the Thunder earlier in the week and if the Strikers are to win here you would imagine he will need to fill his boots against the other outfit out of Sydney. His off spin could be handy here too.
Betting
I have said a couple of times already this season that I expect Adelaide Strikers matches to be high scoring and loaded with boundaries because I just don’t see how they win matches without their bat dominating the ball. Their bowling unit looks one of the weaker in the competition on paper but what they lack in bowling strength and resources they more than make up for with the power and depth with the bat as we saw against the Sydney Thunder.
I don’t see anything changing here because I’m confident that we will see the Sydney Sixers get after this Adelaide bowling and that will force the Strikers batting to fight fire with fire. We’re only a week or so away from the Sydney Test match so we might well be on the side of the square for this one but the boundaries aren’t the biggest here anyway. The second match of the tournament was played on this ground and it was relatively high scoring but not extremely so and there were 41 boundaries. The line for this one is 36.5 and with the way Adelaide are set up I expect this to be covered.
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