The second part of the double header in the Big Bash League on Saturday comes from the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground as the Melbourne Stars take on the Perth Scorchers in what is a massive match for the home side.
The Stars still retain a place in the top five but are not guaranteed to stay there unless they win here. The Scorchers have secured a spot in the postseason but will be looking to keep winning to give themselves a better chance of success.
Melbourne Stars
The Melbourne Stars usually finish a regular season well but then flatter to deceive when it comes to the finals. It remains to be seen whether they will do the latter again but in order to get there they have to win at least one of their last two matches if not both of them. Their last match comes against the table topping Sydney Sixers which may not be the easiest to win so this game becomes pretty important to their chances.
One thing which will give the Stars some confidence in this match is that they tend to play conditions at the MCG very well. They have played there twice this season and won on both occasions and both wins were pretty comfortable so that is something which they will hope to use to their advantage. The doubt comes in the form of their record in big matches which is usually something to be desired, as they proved when they lost to the Melbourne Renegades last time out.
Perth Scorchers
The Perth Scorchers look to be surging into the postseason. There were some questions over whether they would be as dominant on their travels as they were at Perth but they put those to bed against the Hobart Hurricanes on Friday when they produced a very convincing performance. What there was to like about that display was that players who haven’t necessarily come to the party throughout this campaign got the job done for them. That sort of thing can never be underestimated.
The Scorchers are currently in that trend that every side wants to be in where their batsmen are delivering the goods and their bowlers are enjoying life off the back of that. It will be interesting to see how their batsmen go here because this isn’t a ground for pounding it out of the park so they might need to box a little more clever, but this Scorchers side look to be a winning machine and while they have secured a place in the finals they will want winning momentum to go into them with.
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Team News
Melbourne Stars have suffered a bit of a blow with the news that Andre Fletcher is going to miss this match due to injury. That leaves a spot open at the top of the innings which could be filled by either Glenn Maxwell or maybe Nic Maddinson.
Perth Scorchers will go in with the same squad that played across the city on Friday. It remains to be seen whether Mitch Marsh’s injury has cleared up enough for him to play twice in the space of 30 hours. If it hasn’t then Cameron Bancroft will most likely come in for him.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of this match with the first of them being on the Melbourne Stars to come out on top in the game. This is a match which is bigger for them than it is for the Scorchers and while that may not usually be significant, when the Scorchers are being required to back up a performance the following day without much incentive to do so there is every chance we don’t see their best display. It is do or die time for the Stars now and while they haven’t been in great form in Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell and Adam Zampa they have three of the better match winners in the competition. If any of them have a day out then the Stars will be competitive. All three play very well on this ground and although Perth won on Friday they were 66-4 at one point before the Hurricanes let them off the hook. I don’t think the Stars will do the same and at odds against on a ground they are hard to beat on I think they are the value.
I’ll also take a guess at who might go up the order to replace Andre Fletcher and see if we can get some value in the Melbourne Stars top batsman market. I have the three likely runners as Hilton Cartwright, Glenn Maxwell and Nic Maddinson and I wonder if the latter will get the call. I say that for a couple of reasons. The main one is that he is left handed so can negate a bit of the threat that Jason Behrendorff offers and the other reason is that in his last three outings he has hit 48*, 20* and 21 so has been wasted down the order a bit. You can get 15/2 on Maddinson, who has opened the batting for his country in the past, and that feels a bit big especially if he is the man to open the batting.
Tips
Back Melbourne Stars to beat Perth Scorchers for a 3/10 stake at 2.15 with Bet365
Back N.Maddinson Top Melbourne Stars Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 8.50 with BetVictor
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