Another team gets their Big Bash League season underway on Monday as the Hobart Hurricanes enter the competition when they go up against a Sydney Sixers side who already have a win under their best this term.
This match comes from Launceston as the Hurricanes look to get their campaign off to a winning start. Sydney looked ominous in their opening game though and are likely to be tough nuts to crack over the course of the evening.
Hobart Hurricanes
The Hobart Hurricanes missed out on the postseason by one spot last season and they will be looking to make up for that this time around. Much has changed since then as the Hurricanes have undergone a bit of a revamp to the squad and they have also changed captain for the new campaign as well. It will be interesting to see if that has an immediate impact in this one or whether they are going to need time for it all to gel together.
The immediate concern for me is that they have a bowler as captain. There aren’t many successful T20 teams that have a bowler as a captain because of the fast pace of the game and Nathan Ellis isn’t exactly experienced when it comes to captaincy either. The other concern I would have is whether they have enough batting depth to live with teams. If their big guns all fire then they will be fine but teams rarely get that to happen for a whole season.
Sydney Sixers
The Sydney Sixers got off to a winning start when they took care of the Melbourne Renegades in their opening match of the campaign and they looked pretty good in doing so. You would imagine they will come on for the run as well which would make them tough to beat in this contest even allowing for the fact that there is no Steve Smith now for a little while. That will only see James Vince going up to open so I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing.
The big thing for the Sixers was how well they bowled in their opening game and they get Todd Murphy back for this one which could be significant. They are going to be without Sean Abbott though so someone will need to bowl the tougher overs for this team here. Sydney are generally one of those teams where the roles are defined though and it would be a surprise if they don’t have someone ready to come in and deliver the goods.
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Key Players
There are a lot of new faces for the Hobart Hurricanes this season but all eyes will be on their captain Nathan Ellis to see how he takes to the position. The Canes can’t afford for it to eat into his ability at the death of the bowling innings where he often shines.
Ben Dwarshuis opened the season with a very good bowling effort with three wickets in the first match including what looked like being a very important wicket of Jake Fraser-McGurk. The Sixers will be hoping he delivers once again here.
Betting
The run line for this match is at 310.5 which feels a little high to me on what isn’t the highest scoring ground in the world. You would imagine the Hobart Hurricanes batters will be a little rusty with this being their first outing while the mainstay of the Sydney Sixers batting effort from their opening game is now missing and while a couple of others were in the runs there will be no Smith to bat around and that might be significant.
The pitches here in Launceston usually have a bit in it for the bowlers and these two sides certainly have bowlers who can take advantage of anything that is in the wicket for them. Both sides have some real class with the new ball and at the back end of the innings so I’m not convinced that this is going to be a bat dominated bat. These two met here a couple of seasons ago and there were only 274 runs on that occasion. I don’t think we find another 37 here.
Tips
Back Under 310.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
