We have another double header of action in the Big Bash League on Thursday and it all begins on the Gold Coast where the Brisbane Heat take a home match for the first time this season. They welcome the Sydney Thunder for the final match of 2022 for the home side.
These two teams met as recently as Tuesday when the Thunder were emphatic 10 wicket winners at the Sydney Showground so the Heat will look for a pretty immediate slice of revenge as they look to come off the foot of the table.
Brisbane Heat
The conditions probably went against the Brisbane Heat in that encounter on Tuesday but at the same time they would have been disappointed with their performance. They never really got anything going in their batting innings and you could sense that they were chasing the game from a very early stage. That defeat took them to one win and three losses from their opening four matches and they are in need of turning things around pronto.
That batting is starting to become a bit of a concern. It was plainly obvious that they invested a lot into it in bringing three overseas players into the batting department so they really need to be piling on the runs if they are going to be competitive. Apart from a streaky Sam Billings innings against the Strikers that batting hasn’t really delivered in line with the potential. When you surrender bowling resources for batting stock you can’t expect to be bailed out by the bowlers too often.
Sydney Thunder
We were waiting for a complete performance from the Sydney Thunder this season and we got it on Tuesday. You could argue that the Brisbane Heat played into their hands a little but at no stage did the Thunder release their grip on the Heat once they had maintained it and in the end they ran out very convincing winners. The task at hand now is to back that up and keep to those levels because man for man they should go very well in this tournament if they do.
The huge thing for the Thunder was that both openers got in and filled their boots in that previous win. When you look at the season so far there aren’t many teams who are getting off to flying starts so if the Thunder can start to do it then it would certainly help them, especially with the likes of Ollie Davies and Daniel Sams to go big down the order. It might also be that the experience of Chris Green as captain is helping them as well.
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Key Players
Colin Munro looked to get after the Sydney Thunder bowling but while he occupied the crease for a lot of the innings he just couldn’t break free. Brisbane would probably prefer a 30 off 15 balls rather than a run a ball 40 from their opener given their batting depth.
Alex Hales is just beginning to round into some nice form and this is the sort of ground where he could go really big if he can survive the initial burst. Hales is very much a confidence player and these boundaries won’t contain him if he gets going.
Betting
I hate it when these short turnaround rematches come along because the obvious thought is that there isn’t time for one team to sort out what went wrong and get the better of the one who just beat them but in this tournament so much changes not least lengthy flights and completely different conditions. I still would expect the Sydney Thunder to win the match but 8/11 is about the right price so I’ll look for another way to back them.
That comes in the form of over 18.5 boundaries from them at even money. It is hard to see the Thunder not winning this if they don’t bat well and when you look at the previous match they just chased down 122 inside 12 overs with 19 boundaries. You would imagine the Heat would score more here if they bat first but even if they only make that sort of score then the Thunder will know that because of that horrendous day when they were skittled for 15 they need to take every chance they have to improve their net run rate. That means in a short chase they’ll target the boundaries and if they bat first they’ll have to in order to put a score on the board. I like them to clear this 18.5 boundaries line on a ground where the wicket is usually great for batting and the size of the ground isn’t the biggest.
Tips
Back Sydney Thunder – Over 18.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
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