There is another double header of action in the Big Bash League on Sunday with the opening match of the two coming from the St Kilda region of Melbourne as the Melbourne Stars take on the Perth Scorchers at the Junction Oval.
This is the first match that has ever been staged in this tournament at this venue but there is still a chance it doesn’t go ahead given the amount of Covid cases in the Melbourne Stars camp. If it does then the Perth Scorchers will be looking to move back to the top of the table.
Melbourne Stars
We have already seen one Melbourne Stars match in this tournament be cancelled and now that it has transpired that they have 10 players testing positive for Covid it wouldn’t be a surprise if another one falls away too. If they do play then clearly it is going to be a case of all hands on deck for the Stars. They will hope that the lessening of expectation on them will see whichever senior players they do have stand up and be counted. We know in this format that anyone can have a day out and win a match on their own.
The Stars need a win here if they can find it. They have played six completed matches so far in the tournament and have won three of them and lost the other three. To be fair to them they have lost two of those defeats to the Sydney Sixers who along with their opponents here look a cut above the rest. The problem is a quarter of the matches left for the Stars come against the Perth Scorchers who might actually be even better than the Sixers.
Perth Scorchers
It isn’t just the Melbourne Stars who will be missing players for this match, the Perth Scorchers have had a couple of key players taken away by Australia but they haven’t been decimated to anything like the level that the Stars have been. In fact, Perth started the tournament without the two players who have left the squad for the time being so their situation is nothing new. It is probably just another thing they will use to galvanise themselves.
The one thing the postponement of the game on Thursday did do was allow the Scorchers to step back and take stock of where they are and rest those who have played a fair amount of cricket in the last couple of weeks. That should allow them to be at their best with what they have available in their squad for this match. The Scorchers have only been beaten once this season when the schedule and travelling looked to have caught up with them. They shouldn’t be in that situation here.
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Team News
We know that the Melbourne Stars will be without 10 players for this match but we don’t know the identity of the 10, although reports suggest that seven of them are starters so at best only four regulars will be featuring for the home side here.
Perth Scorchers are going to be without Mitchell Marsh and Josh Inglis for this encounter as Australia have come calling for them. Tymal Mills was rested for the loss to the Thunder but he is expected to return here. Cameron Bancroft will come in for one of the departed batters.
Betting
If you think back to the opening match of this tournament the Melbourne Stars had to field a very weak side because of players who were unavailable and they were absolutely battered by the Sydney Sixers. They have played matches since then so the regulars will be a little sharper but they won’t have practiced much with the regular travelling and the Covid testing they have had to go through so while I don’t expect them to lose by 152 runs I do expect them to be pretty comfortably beaten.
Perth Scorchers have done without Mitchell Marsh and Josh Inglis already in this tournament and while it isn’t ideal that they are away, Inglis hasn’t really delivered a huge amount so far this term anyway so it is only really Marsh who will be missed but there is enough in their batting to step up and get the job done. The bowlers might not need to be at their best against a weakened Stars batting unit so I’m happy enough to take Perth Scorchers on a handicap, which is fairly big but perhaps not big enough.
Tips
WON – Back Perth Scorchers (-4.5wickets/18.5runs) to beat Melbourne Stars for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
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