We head back to Melbourne for the Big Bash League match on Thursday as the Melbourne Renegades host the Perth Scorchers which sees Brad Hogg going up against his former employers for the first time which is a big thing down under.
The Renegades got themselves off to a winning start and can steal a march on some good sides with a win here. Perth also began their season with a win but any momentum that gave them was halted when they were thrashed by the Sixers on Tuesday.
Melbourne Renegades
As I’ve mentioned in a few places the Renegades are my idea of the good things in this tournament and they certainly backed up my optimism in their opening match when they took care of the defending champions Sydney Thunder in fine style. This should be a tougher test for them though so we might get a truer picture of where they are during and after this match.
Although it was a top performance in their opening game they will know there is more to come from them too. Cameron White has been in excellent form leading into the tournament and he didn’t get going in that first game. We’ve seen sides look good in their first match and then struggle or actually lose their second one so Melbourne need to guard against that.
Perth Scorchers
Perth looked really good in their dominant opening win against the Adelaide Strikers but whether it was complacency which got them in their second match or just a poor performance we’ll have to wait until this match to find out but they will know they need to bat a whole lot better than they did in Sydney if they are to win matches.
The one thing we do know is that if Perth put up even par totals then most of the time they will win because their bowling attack is one of the best in the tournament and they have made a lifeblood out of defending totals over the last three seasons. Michael Klinger coming back to form could boost their run scoring.
Team News
Melbourne Renegades have been forced into one change to their squad with Cameron Stevenson coming into the squad for Xavier Doherty. Stevenson has to either be picked in the starting 11 or as the 12th man as per the terms of replacing the injured Peter Siddle.
The Scorchers get the chance to use two class players who weren’t available to them in Sydney. Mitchell Johnson had to sit that one out but he returns here and Hilton Cartwright was called up to the Test squad but can feature here having not been picked in the Australia side.
Betting
Many bookmakers can’t split these two and that looks perfectly fair to me. The match will be won by the side who get off to the better start with the bat because both bowling attacks look really good to me. I don’t think this will be a 180 plays 180 match just because of the qualities of the attacks so the side that can lose the fewer wickets early may be the ones to prevail.
We know from the Test match that there has been plenty of rain around in Melbourne this week so how well prepared the pitch will be will be interesting to see but I’m expecting a tough night for the batsmen. With that in mind the sixes line up at 11.5 could be a touch on the high side. There were only dead on a dozen in the first match here and I don’t expect as many in this one.
Tips
WON – Back Under 11.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with Coral
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