We are back to win or go home cricket in the Big Bash League on Sunday when the Melbourne Renegades take on the Brisbane Heat in the Knockout leg of the finals at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne.
We know the winner of this one will head to Sydney to take on the Sydney Sixers for a place in the final on Thursday while the loser will be done for the season so everything is on the line in this clash between third and fifth from the regular season.
Melbourne Renegades
Generally recent seasons for the Melbourne Renegades have been shocking or they have won the title so having not been awful this term they will be hoping they end up celebrating glory for the second time in four years. If that is going to happen they will need to win three knockout matches, here against the Brisbane Heat, on Thursday against the Sydney Sixers and then on Saturday against the Perth Scorchers with the latter two being away from home. It is a tough ask but they have home advantage here.
The Renegades have generally got the job done through their bowlers this season. They usually get stuck in at the top of the innings which means teams have to try and repair the damage against some handy spinners which is never easy. By and large their batting efforts have centred around good individual displays but they have two or three top order players in good nick and a couple of hitters deep in the line up to propel a score to a bigger total.
Brisbane Heat
The Brisbane Heat came home with a flourish in the regular season to pinch the last spot in the finals and they have already been on their travels and won a knockout match so they will take a lot of confidence from that. It might be that the rain assisted them in Sydney on Friday but they had posted a daunting looking total and would probably have defended it but the rain came at a time where we will never know what would have happened.
The big thing for the Heat in that contest was how their three key batters all found form and batted together. They are all available for this match so the Heat will hope that they can deliver the goods once again. We’ve mentioned all tournament that Brisbane sacrificed on their bowling resources to bolster their batting but that bowling attack has delivered when they have needed them to in recent weeks. Brisbane will fancy their chances here.
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Key Players
With Kane Richardson unavailable here and leaving a hole in the Melbourne Renegades attack it is even more imperative that Aaron Finch goes big and delivers a score. How he manages his bowlers will be important as well.
Usman Khawaja came to the party for the Brisbane Heat on Friday and while this will be his final match of the tournament regardless of the outcome of this game, he’ll look for another big score to send his team to Sydney on Thursday.
Betting
I think the team news has massively swung this in favour of the Brisbane Heat. Sure in an ideal world they would have Mitch Swepson available for this match as well but if they need a second spinner then Matt Renshaw is more than capable as is Marnus Labuschagne. The former will be particularly useful to the lefties in the Melbourne Renegades batting unit as well. The big news though is Kane Richardson misses this match for the home side and that leaves a huge hole in their bowling attack.
The Heat come into this match having won an away match in the pressure situation of knockout cricket and I always think that is a big thing. To be fair to Melbourne, they have had a good season and have won some close matches but I just can’t get over how big a loss Richardson is going to be for them. I think man for man the Heat have the better batting unit and I don’t think Swepson is as big an absence as Richardson is so I’ll take the Heat in this one.
Tips
Back Brisbane Heat to beat Melbourne Renegades for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Bet365
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