2022 concludes with a double header of action in the Big Bash League on Saturday, one which begins with a clash between the Sydney Thunder and the Hobart Hurricanes with the match taking place in the new venue of Albury.
These two teams begin the day either side of the top five line so this is a match which could have a big bearing on how the campaigns of both sides play out even though we are still in the first half of the season.
Sydney Thunder
It has been an up and down start to the season for the Sydney Thunder but a double header with the Brisbane Heat came at the right time for them and they have picked up successive post-Christmas wins to move themselves into the top five. The issue for the Thunder is they know they are most likely going to have to win more matches than five other teams because the beating they took at the hands of the Adelaide Strikers when they were skittled for 15 has killed their net run rate.
The thing I liked about the two wins over the Brisbane Heat was that the first one was won by their top order and in the second one it was a burst from the middle order which got them over the line. Teams who have all of their order contributing are always ones which are likely to go well. That is even more the case with the Thunder because we know their bowling attack has all the change ups and variations needed to be hard to get away.
Hobart Hurricanes
The Hobart Hurricanes have had a slow start to the season both in terms of results and activity. They have only played four matches so they have two games in hand of some teams in the competition. They have won two of those matches and lost two, losing the first and third and winning the second and fourth. If that sequence continues they will lose this match so they will be eager to put a stop to that and head into 2023 off the back of two straight wins.
Only Hobart will know whether their slow start to the season was down to the expectation on themselves going into it because there are a lot of judges, myself included, who thought they could pull off a title charge this season. They have had a week without a match to take stock of things and the first thing they should have realised is that their fielding has to improve. It has been very poor so far. They could still bowl better too but that probably comes if their fielding backs up the bowling.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account and bet £10 to get up to £20 in free bets! Perfect offer for this competition! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Key Players
Daniel Sams contributed to the last win with the bat and the ball and with Gurinder Sandhu injured for this match you would imagine that the man who has played white ball cricket around the world will have a bigger role to play with the ball.
Matthew Wade was suspended for the win over the Melbourne Renegades last time out but with Ben McDermott out injured he is likely to open the batting on his return and if he can get the Hurricanes off to a good start he should break the back of the match.
Betting
This ground has hosted an ODI but it was 30 years ago so we can’t really take much out of that but the Sydney Thunder are hoping to break into this part of the world and create a fan base and I always think when that is the intention of a team the one thing we can guarantee is a good pitch for batting and an entertaining game of cricket. Looking at the pictures of the ground the dimensions don’t look to be the biggest so we should get that.
You can actually get an 8.5 sixes line for this match which wouldn’t be that low if we were at the MCG let alone here where the very idea of it being an oval will mean there are short boundaries to be attacked somewhere. Then when you factor in we have Matt Gilkes, Alex Hales, Rilee Rossouw, Ollie Davies, Daniel Sams, D’Arcy Short, Matthew Wade, Tim David, Asif Ali and others all coming to the crease with a bat in their hand we are not going to be short of firepower to get the sixes in. I’ll take the over on the 8.5 line.
Tips
Back Over 8.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with Boylesports
Back it here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2022
