The much anticipated new season of the Big Bash League gets underway on Tuesday with the first Sydney derby of the campaign. The Sydney Thunder get their title defence underway when they host their local rivals Sydney Sixers with both sides looking to get off to a fast start.
The difference between these two could not have been further apart last season. The Thunder ran hot in the playoffs to win the title while the Sixers got nothing going at all and propped up the other seven sides.
Sydney Thunder
All eyes will be on the home side in this match to see what sort of shape they are in for their title defence. Immediately we should mention that this will be a much different Thunder side to the one which won the title. Mike Hussey and Jacques Kallis both played big parts in the campaign last season and they have retired now and for this match Shane Watson and Usman Khawaja are missing too.
That is a lot of batting quality they will need to find but the one area they are well stocked in is the bowling department where Pat Cummins, Andre Russell, Gurinder Sandhu and Clint McKay are among the best seam attack in the competition. They’re no worse off in the spin department either.
Sydney Sixers
It won’t take too much for the Sixers to improve on what they offered last season. They were pretty ordinary throughout. A lack of batting depth was the issue last season but they have put that right this time around, for the first half of the season at least with the addition to the ranks of Jason Roy and Sam Billings.
The Thunder have a quality bowling attack but the Sixers don’t lag too far behind them. Doug Bollinger, Sean Abbott and Moises Henriques are all very good at this level while Johan Botha and Steve O’Keefe could be the best spin pairing in the competition so the Sixers will head into the game full of confidence.
Team News
Ben Rohrer will captain the Thunder in the absence of Shane Watson. Eoin Morgan will come into the side but the home side look to lack a little bit of batting depth. Chris Hartley could be used in a key role.
Jason Roy and Sam Billings should be making their Sixers debuts in this match. Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon are away on international duty so all eyes will be on Sean Abbott and Doug Bollinger with the ball.
Betting
This should be a good way to start the tournament. Bookmakers go level price the two which reflects the age old battle we have here between a brutal looking batting side and a top notch looking bowling attack. I’m usually on the bowling attack in that battle but the Sixers have a decent enough bowling line up too. With that in mind I’m going to the side markets here.
Most of the power in the batting line up of the Sydney Thunder are down the order which is a contrast to the Sydney Sixers who load up their hitters up the order. Jason Roy and Brad Haddin are likely to open the batting while Sam Billings and Daniel Hughes will float higher up the order too. Both sides are fairly even with the new ball so I like the extra power of the Sixers batting to lead them to a six over lead.
I also like the sixes in this match too. The Sydney Showground is a small ground with the boundaries highly accessible. In the four matches here last season there were nine sixes in matches where 122 was the highest second innings score and 14 sixes in two more regular scoring matches.
We have Haddin, Morgan, Russell, Roy, Billings, Henriques, Rohrer and Blizzard who can hit a long ball in this match and I’m expecting the sixes count to make it into double figures here.
Tips
Back Sydney Sixers Highest 1st 6 Overs for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
WON – Back 10 or more sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
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