Knockout cricket officially begins in the Big Bash League on Saturday when the Eliminator takes place as the defending champions Perth Scorchers look to stay alive for the season when they host the Adelaide Strikers.
The equation is simple in this match. The winners will head to Carrara to take on the Brisbane Heat for a place in the final on Monday while the loser will be watching the remainder of the competition at home having been eliminated.
Perth Scorchers
The Perth Scorchers have given themselves no wiggle room after they lost their final regular season match. They went into the game against the Sydney Sixers knowing that if they had won it they would have had two goes at making the final but they failed to defend 197/4 and now they have to run the gauntlet if they are going to make a successful defence of the title. They will be at home in this first game but will need to win two on the road to be the champions.
The real surprise with their final group match is that it was their bowlers who let them down. Usually their bowling has been spot on in this competition but for some reason they went into battle against the Sydney Sixers with the extra batter and paid the price. They might have wanted to go back to type but the loss of Laurie Evans from the squad now probably means they need to stick with the balance which didn’t really work last time out.
Adelaide Strikers
The Adelaide Strikers were the last team into the finals and as such they are playing knockout cricket on the road throughout until they are eliminated. I always think the last team into the playoffs have nothing to lose and that is the positive for the Strikers. They will however head to Perth knowing they have already been beaten there and will need to put that out of their mind and concentrate on the game at hand.
One thing which can’t be labelled at the Strikers is that they are out of form. They have won their last four matches so they are heading into the postseason in blinding form and if momentum counts for anything at this stage of the season then they certainly have plenty of it. Unfortunately for them they are going to have to do without their leading wicket taker this season as Jamie Overton has left for the ILT20 competition, as have Chris Lynn and Adam Hose.
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Key Players
Aaron Hardie is the second highest run scorer in the competition this season and with the Scorchers’ second highest scorer Laurie Evans no longer around Perth are going to need their captain to deliver the goods and keep their season alive.
Matt Short is the leading run scorer in the tournament and with two key batters having disappeared for the Adelaide Strikers they are also going to need their captain to come up with the goods with the bat and the ball.
Betting
I’m looking forward to this match because I think we are in for a high scoring game. The Perth pitch has been brilliant all season, no more so than in the last game here when nearly 400 runs were scored and with everything on the line here I’m expecting the runs to pile up and to do so quite quickly, even though one or two key batters have departed the scene. The run line for this one sits at 330.5 and I’m not convinced that is high enough.
The Adelaide bowling unit has struggled for the most part all season and I certainly don’t think it is going to be at its best when it is missing its top wicket taker for the campaign but the Perth bowling has just taken an absolute battering by the Sydney Sixers. The one thing that Adelaide have done this season is score big runs and I think they’ll do that again here but even if they don’t Perth might have already scored a significant chunk. There were 380 runs when these two met here in the regular season so I’m expecting to see more than 330.5 in this one.
Tips
Back Over 330.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
