The Big Bash League season resumes on Sunday even though the Test match will be going on at the same time. The campaign returns with two of the bottom three in the table meeting as the Brisbane Heat meeting the Sydney Thunder at The Gabba.
These two teams have both won one and lost two of their opening three matches but whoever comes out on top here will move into the top three in the relatively early table so there is a good chance in front of both here.
Brisbane Heat
After losing their opening two matches, the first of which was against their opponents in this match, the Brisbane Heat finally got off the mark for their campaign last time out when they took care of the Melbourne Renegades with relative ease. I thought they would need a few matches to get going this season. One of the reasons for that was The Gabba was being used for the first Test match so the Heat couldn’t get on true home soil.
The other reason was that Australia A and England Lions seemed to decimate their squad, as well as a couple of players who are away with Australia who they are not going to see much of this term. The A players and England Lions man are now firmly in their squad so it would be a surprise if we don’t see the Brisbane outfit go from strength to strength from here on in. That should include their batting beginning to fire which is what they have lacked so far.
Sydney Thunder
The Sydney Thunder won their opening match of the season against the Brisbane Heat but they have dropped two in a row since then. They were both against the Melbourne Stars but they will know they should have won the first of those. Those defeats won’t matter too much if they can come away from this game with a victory but if they don’t there is half a chance that a bit of a rot could set in if they are not careful.
We haven’t really seen the Thunder fire with the bat yet this season either. They have finished innings a lot better than they have started them so they could do with getting off to better beginnings to their innings. If they can do that then they have a nice balance to their attack, an attack which gets strengthened here with the arrival of one of their overseas recruits. Sydney have every chance here if they can kick into life early with the bat.
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Team News
Brisbane Heat have their Australian pair of Mark Steketee and Mitch Swepson available for the first time this season after they were released from the Test squad early enough to head to Brisbane to compete in this match.
Sydney Thunder will have their overseas star Saqib Mahmood available for the first time this term after he has completed his stint with the England Lions. He’ll have a few eyes on him with England’s bowlers struggling and an opening potentially coming along.
Betting
The two meetings between these two last season were both high scoring affairs and given that we saw in the Test match last week that the pitch is pretty flat at The Gabba I’m expecting nothing different here. We know this ground is on the smaller side at the best of times without all the usual paraphernalia which comes with T20 matches and there are some big hitters on show in this match even though we haven’t necessarily seen the best of them recently.
When you have the likes of Chris Lynn, Max Bryant, Alex Hales, Ben Cutting and Daniel Sams among others going to work on a flat deck with short straight boundaries you are likely to see plenty of sixes. There were 16 of them when these two met here last season and 12 the year before. You can get a 9.5 line in this one which feels on the low side in a match where the seam bowlers tend to pitch the ball up looking for swing and each side only have one mystery spinner. I’ll take the over.
Tips
Back Over 9.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with BetVictor
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