Big Bash League 2022-23 Challenger – Sydney Sixers vs Brisbane Heat Tips and Betting Preview

There are two matches left in the Big Bash League season and the first of those comes around on Thursday when the Sydney Sixers take on the Brisbane Heat in the Challenger clash at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The equation for this one is very simple. The team who wins will hop straight onto a flight to Perth to take on the Perth Scorchers in the final on Saturday, while the loser of this one will be watching the title showdown from home.

Sydney Sixers

The Sydney Sixers have already had one chance to make the final which they made a bit of a mess of from a promising position and they will be determined not to pass up the second opportunity they created for themselves courtesy of a regular season in which they finished second in the table. It would be a little harsh if the Sixers don’t win this match as they were comfortably the next best team to the Perth Scorchers in the first phase of the competition.

Sydney will be annoyed at letting the Scorchers get away from them in the Qualifier because they had them exactly where they wanted them when Perth were three down early on in a daunting run chase. To be fair to the Scorchers their class told from there on in but the Sixers will be disappointed with some of their fielding, which while it might not have changed the result, it might have created more pressure on the chase and potentially slid the door ajar. They will want to be a lot more ruthless here.

Brisbane Heat

I always think that the away team in this Challenger match is the one feeling better about life because they have won their last match coming into it. As it turns out, Brisbane have won two road games in the finals and were the form team at the end of the regular season so the Heat creditably should head to Sydney feeling good about their chances based on the bank of form they have behind them and the way they have been performing.

The obvious stumbling block for them though is that their three Test batters, who have each been imperious in their finals run so far, as they are off to India. To say that leaves a hole in their batting would be a huge understatement so you sense if the Heat are going to come through here and set up a clash with Perth in the final, it will be their bowlers who are going to have to come to the party and get the job done for them.


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Key Players

If the old adage that bowlers win matches rings true at this stage of a season then Sean Abbott will be a key player for the Sydney Sixers. His three wickets in the powerplay looked to have opened the game up in the Qualifier on Saturday but the other bowlers couldn’t get it done. Early wickets here could smash the door wide open.

Xavier Bartlett came into the side for the Knockout win over the Melbourne Renegades and took three wickets in a brilliant spell of bowling. The Brisbane Heat will need another great spell from him and a few lusty blows down the order might be useful too.

Betting

I can make the case for Brisbane Heat being a big price for an upset here but the Sydney Sixers were so far clear of the rest and look the second best team in this competition on paper that I’ve got to think that the home side will set up another crack at the Perth Scorchers. The Heat thrashed the Sixers in a high scoring match at The Gabba earlier in the season and they had shoved a daunting score on the board in the second one before the rain came along. They did that without their Test stars but I sense that Sydney will be more prepared on home soil as those other two matches were away from the SCG.

Instead I’ll take a player bet for the match and that comes in the form of the wickets for Sean Abbott. He is in exceptional form at the minute and in his last three matches at the SCG he has taken 2/17 against the Renegades, 3/18 against the Scorchers and 3/11 against the Thunder. He has a wickets line of 1.5 here, a line he has covered in six of his last seven matches with the one time he didn’t cover it coming in Coffs Harbour where the wicket was dry as a bone. When these two sides met at the Sydney Cricket Ground last season Abbott picked up four wickets and when we consider he bowls in the powerplay, the power surge and at the death and Brisbane are without their three gun batters, I’ve got to think the even money on Abbott to pick up two or more scalps for a seventh time in his last eight outings in this tournament.

Tips

Back S.Aboott – Over 1.5 wickets for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral

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