One team will keep their season alive in the Big Bash League on Sunday and another will see theirs end from a competitive point of view when the Melbourne Stars take on the Brisbane Heat at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Technically knockout cricket doesn’t begin until the end of the week in this competition but for these two it starts early as only one will be left with a chance of reaching the playoffs once this match is over and even then they will not be in control of their own destiny.
Melbourne Stars
The Melbourne Stars left themselves with a lot of work to do in order to make the finals when they went down to the Adelaide Strikers on Saturday. They have to win their last two matches and hope results go their way in order to have any chance of making the postseason. If they don’t make it then we can’t really be too harsh on them this time around because they have had the rough end of the stick with them missing a lot of players for key matches because of Covid.
The Stars have plugged away but each time they have got themselves in a position to enhance their position in the table and launch a tilt at the playoffs they have lost a game they would have expected to win. They are now firmly supping ale at the last chance saloon bar so it will be interesting to see if the backs against the wall nature of where they are now at will bring about the best of their form or the worst of it.
Brisbane Heat
This hasn’t been a good season at all for the Brisbane Heat but much like their opponents in this match they have a bonafide excuse given the decimation that Covid did to their squad during the middle of the campaign. It is hard to be too critical of them as a result of that but to be fair to the Heat they know if they win their final three matches of the regular season they could still make a late push for the playoffs. They did that last year so they have memories to draw upon.
If the Heat are going to win this and the two which follow it then we are going to need to see their very best with the bat. There has been the odd occasion where they have performed how we know they can but those offerings have been far too few and far between for them to really be able to push for consistent wins. The Heat do get a couple of huge players back and they will hope that inspires them to glory here.
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Team News
Nathan Coulter-Nile returns to the squad for this huge match after he has recovered from injury. He is likely to come into the side for Sam Rainbird in what might well be an otherwise unchanged side unless someone hasn’t backed up from Saturday too well.
Brisbane Heat will welcome Michael Neser and Mitchell Swepson back from Australia duty. The Test side have really restricted their game time so the Heat will hope they hit the ground running, particularly as they are without Mujeeb who has left for international duty. Fakhar Zaman is able to play this match.
Betting
I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anyone that I like the Brisbane Heat here. It is so hard to back up a performance the following day and that is likely to be the case even more for the Melbourne Stars here because the loss to the Adelaide Strikers on Saturday was so damaging to their chances. Not only do they need to back up the following day but that needs to happen after flying from Adelaide to Melbourne.
Brisbane Heat have no such issues in that regard and you could argue that even without Mujeeb they are going to be the strongest they have been all season in this match. Admittedly they are getting bowlers back and it is their batters who have let them down this term but they do have Fakhar Zaman in their ranks and having their best bowling attack out might take the pressure off the batters. On freshness grounds alone I’m not than happy to be on the Heat in this one.
Tips
Back Brisbane Heat to beat Melbourne Stars for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
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