We have another double header of action in the Big Bash League on Saturday with the first of the two matches coming from the Blundstone Arena in Hobart as the Hobart Hurricanes takes on the Melbourne Stars in an appealing looking contest.
Both teams have made good starts to the season and sit in the top five going into this clash so they can play with a bit of freedom and attack another victory which should make for an exciting and entertaining game for us watching on.
Hobart Hurricanes
The Hobart Hurricanes began their season very strongly with three wins in four matches on this ground and although they won one of their two matches in Brisbane over the last week or so, it was so very obvious that they weren’t as convincing so they will be pleased to be back home for this match. To their credit even though they made a complete mess of the end of their innings in the second of those two matches at The Gabba, they were still able to get the job done.
The one thing they will hope that a return to their home ground where they are familiar with conditions will do is allow their batting to flourish again. There is no doubting the talent they have with the willow and there are no real excuses for it not to come out here. If they do find their best batting form then they are going to be hard to beat because their bowling has been in decent touch even allowing for the James Faulkner injury.
Melbourne Stars
The Melbourne Stars began the tournament strongly as well but they have become unravelled in the last two matches and just need a convincing performance to get their confidence and their mojo back. It wasn’t a surprise that they performed poorly in their last match after the way they lost the one before it. They have had a couple of days to dust off the cobwebs and take stock of what has happened and get themselves up to go again here.
The obvious concern from the last two matches is that their bowling has taken something of a pounding in both of them but actually when you break it down their batting hasn’t been great. There were some cracks papered over in that epic encounter with the Sydney Sixers when Glenn Maxwell and Nicholas Pooran made their batting effort look a lot better than it was and then they were pitiful with the bat last time out against the Thunder so there is definite room for improvement there.
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Team News
The Hobart Hurricanes have a new overseas player in their squad for this match in the form of Sandeep Lamichhane, who ironically could be facing his former side here. He comes into the squad for Keemo Paul. James Faukner and Matthew Wade are still missing.
The Melbourne Stars haven’t named their squad for this match yet but we know they will be without Adam Zampa who has picked up a suspension and Nathan Coulter-Nile who is injured. What is not yet known is whether Haris Rauf has completed his quarantine period.
Betting
I’m tempted to take the Hobart Hurricanes now that they are back on home turf where they look very comfortable at the minute but with both teams missing their best bowler and being stacked with powerful batsmen I think the better angle in here is to concentrate on the boundaries, of which there should be plenty on a ground that we’ve already seen is not all that big when they factor in the speed of the outfield here.
The boundaries line here is 37.5 which feels high and to an extent with what we’ve seen at times in this competition it is high but I don’t think it is high enough. We’ve seen the Stars batsmen all go full pelt in this tournament with none of them having the brains to rein themselves in and ensure there is a decent score put up and while the Hurricanes are much better in that department, their top six are all clean hitters of a cricket ball. With Zampa out there isn’t a lot of mystery spin around here so I’m expecting the boundaries to flow throughout this contest.
Tips
Back Over 37.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
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