The Big Bash League heads to the capital for the first time this season on Friday when the Melbourne Stars host the Brisbane Heat in the opening game of the campaign for both sides, with both looking to get up and running with a win.
It was a tale of two stories for these two last season. The Stars made it all the way to the final where they were eventually denied their maiden title, while the Heat never looked like being involved in the play-offs and need a marked improvement on that effort here.
Melbourne Stars
All eyes will be on the Melbourne Stars here to see how they react to the disappointment of losing the final last season. They have had a fair while to get their head around it and have made some good looking reinforcements to their quota so it shouldn’t be an issue but they wouldn’t be the first side to suffer a hangover the following season. An emphatic win here would certainly put things right and actually as they play again on Saturday they have the chance to put the early marker down this term.
You look at the Stars’ line up and it would be amazing if they don’t go well with the bat. They are loaded with powerful and in form T20 batsmen so the question mark over them is whether they have enough in their bowling attack, especially without the likes of Haris Rauf, to get the job done. If they are then it would not be a surprise to see the Melbourne outfit living up to their billing of tournament favourites even this early in the piece.
Brisbane Heat
It was a campaign to forget for the Brisbane Heat last season and they will be looking to put that right from the get go here, although it has to be said they look a whole lot weaker this term than they did last year. That might be no bad thing as there might be a better team rather than the individual superstars of last season but as I mentioned in the outright preview, I don’t see how a team can truly be better without Tom Banton and AB de Villiers than they were with them.
The Heat have a lot of missing players here because of Australia Test duty and call ups to the Australia A squad so this is going to be a pretty inexperienced side which will take the park for this match. That might give them the freedom to perform and if everything begins well they could sail off the back of it but if they get off to a rough start there might not be much in the way of nous to steady the ship and get back on track.
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Team News
Melbourne Stars have named a pretty strong squad for this fixture, one which will see Andre Fletcher and Nicholas Pooran given their debuts. Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell and Adam Zampa are all in there too.
Brisbane Heat are at the other end of the scale. They are without Joe Burns, Marnus Labuschagne and Mitch Swepson for various call ups while Lewis Gregory is still in quarantine. Dan Lawrence could be one of a number of debutants for the Heat.
Betting
I’ll go with the one bet for the second match in this competition and it comes in the performance of Glenn Maxwell who might just be the main man for the Melbourne Stars this season when you consider that he is the one who is likely to get the head start in his innings of the power surge overs. He might not need that if the recent series against India is anything to go by. He was in excellent touch there and a repeat of that hitting prowess could easily get him beyond his 34.5 target.
There was a little bit of turn in the matches at Manuka in the Australia vs India matches and it is well-known that Chris Lynn favours quicker bowling to spin so I wouldn’t be surprised if Maxwell gives himself the new ball to try and snare the Heat danger man out. With the possibility of wicket taking and the likelihood that he’ll be in the key areas in the field, not to mention his potential with the bat, I think the obvious play is to take over 34.5 points on his performance line.
Tips
WON – Back G.Maxwell’s Performance – Over 34.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betfair
Back him here:
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