The Big Bash League continues on Friday with one more match in the competition as the Melbourne Stars welcome the Sydney Sixers to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for what is a key fixture for the home side.
The Stars begin the second part of their season in this match and have seen the top five pull away from them so they could really do with a win here to close that gap. The Sixers are stalking the leaders and will go top should they win.
Melbourne Stars
The Melbourne Stars just can’t get any consistency going at the minute. They had a good win over the Adelaide Strikers on New Year’s Eve but then came up a mile short in the Melbourne derby last time out. The Stars have won just two of their seven matches to date and are going to need to win at least five, and probably six, of their last seven in order to make it into the finals. They don’t get any Test stars back but lose Trent Boult after this game so something is going to need to change fast.
The inconsistency really comes with the bat. The Stars either go very well with the bat, usually when someone in their top three gets in and takes the game on, or they are abysmal. There is no in between and that is a concern. They haven’t been terrible with the ball but when you look at the options they possess I don’t think there is any getting away from the fact that they are underperforming in that department as well. It needs a dramatic turnaround.
Sydney Sixers
The Sydney Sixers had moved themselves into a good spot after a slow start to the season. They lost their opening two matches and then won their next four and looked to be rounding into position to launch another title shot but they have hit the skids a little. The Brisbane Heat took them apart at The Gabba on Sunday and then the rain came in the rematch between the two earlier in the week, although the Sixers were staring at a large chase had it not rained.
It is quite rare to see the Sixers’ bowling taken apart like it has been in the last two matches. Admittedly they have played on a couple of excellent batting pitches with short boundaries but even so you don’t see it very often. They are resting and rotating their bowlers though because they are in the middle of a pretty tough schedule so that accounts for some of it. They’ll be hoping those bowlers can get back to type here.
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Key Players
You get the feeling that when the top three offer little for the Melbourne Stars nobody else does so there is a real intensity on Joe Clarke to get the side off to a good start. He leads their run charts by 72 but 101 of his 232 runs came in one innings. They need him to go big here.
James Vince departs the scene soon and the Sixers will hope that he can leave with another big performance. Since he went back to open the batting he has come alive again and the vast expanses of the MCG should suit him well.
Betting
This is a fixture that the Sydney Sixers have dominated in recent times. They have won the last five matches with the Stars and in the main the reason for that is because their batting against the Stars is usually very good. In four of those five matches someone has made a 50 for the Sixers and in the anomaly Dan Christian finished 49* when the chase was completed so there is always someone who drives the innings and it is that which I’m going to take for a bet here.
Bet365 have the Sydney Sixers’ top individual score at 52.5 which they covered in the other four recent wins, including in the Boxing Day clash between the two when Moises Henriques controlled the innings with 52* from 32 balls. The top six of the Sixers are all capable of playing big knocks and with this not really a pin the ears back and pound it out of the ground sort of venue I would be surprised if someone doesn’t pass 50 for the away side here.
Tips
Back Sydney Sixers Highest Individual Score – Over 52.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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