The opening semi-final of the Big Bash League takes place at the Optus Stadium on Thursday when the table topping Perth Scorchers look to make it back to another final when they entertain the Hobart Hurricanes.
A five match winning burst during the middle of the campaign enabled the Hobart Hurricanes to cling onto a play-off spot but they have it all to do if they are to beat the defending champions in their new stadium.
Perth Scorchers
The Perth Scorchers have had to deal with a lot of comings and goings over the course of this tournament so it is very much to their credit that they were able to top the table and secure home advantage throughout the course of the play-offs. In a new stadium holding over 50,000 people that could be significant too.
The key to the success of this side is pretty simple. Everybody is assigned a role which they know how to implement and they just perform every time they go onto the field. They have to adjust to a new wicket here but they have played warm up matches on it and will have done plenty of training so they should be fine.
Hobart Hurricanes
It isn’t just the Perth Scorchers that deserve credit. The Hobart Hurricanes do too. Many had them down as making up the numbers before the season got underway but they have been terrific and fully deserve their place in this semi-final. They will not want to resort to making up the numbers now they are here but this is a real test.
One thing that may well serve the Hurricanes in this semi-final is that they haven’t got one unit performing better than the other. The batting and the bowling have both functioned equally as well in the tournament and while there are better batting units in the competition and better bowling attacks few have come together like they have.
Team News
Perth Scorchers could legitimately be the strongest they have been all season here. Both Shaun and Mitchell Marsh are back from international duty here while Jhye Richardson is back from the ODI squad too. Ashton Agar and Andrew Tye are away with Australia though.
Hobart Hurricanes have lost the leading run scorer in the competition to international duty in D’Arcy Short which is a blow but the return of Tim Paine should lessen that a little. They have decided to leave Tymal Mills out of the squad for this game which is a huge call.
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Betting
I would expect and hope that the Perth Scorchers will win this match as I backed them to win the tournament before it began but I’m not going to back them in this semi-final as I’ve a feeling whoever bats second might have an advantage.
We saw in the ODI here on Sunday that the straight boundaries here are very small, much in the same way as some New Zealand grounds are which are multi-purpose facilities. With that in mind I expect the sixes to flow here and I’m surprised we can get a 10.5 sixes line. When these two met at the WACA a couple of weeks ago there were 11 sixes. Given how short the straight boundaries are here I’m expecting at least that many again.
Tips
WON – Back Over 10.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
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