The Big Bash League begins 2024 with a double header of action with the year beginning at the Blundstone Arena as the Hobart Hurricanes take on the Sydney Thunder in a match that neither team can afford to lose.
These two go in bottom and third from bottom respectively and with the top four beginning to get away from them there isn’t much more room to move for these teams. The loser wouldn’t technically be done for the season but it would need a lot to go their way.
Hobart Hurricanes
The Hurricanes have one win from their four matches and have the second worst run rate in the competition. The positive is that they have games in hand of the teams that they are chasing but they need to start winning soon in order to get back into the competition. The other positive is that the schedule has been kind to them. If the Perth Scorchers and the Sydney Sixers prove to be the best two teams in the tournament again, none of their last six games are against either of them.
If the Hurricanes are going to get back into the competition then their bowling is really going to need to come to the party. They have been going in with the extra bowler yet have conceded 173/1 and 183/5 in two of the three completed matches they have played. With them being a batter light and one or two flattering to deceive a little in the key areas, the bowlers need to come to the assistance of the batters and need to do it quickly.
Sydney Thunder
The Sydney Thunder have played an extra match to the Hobart Hurricanes and only have a point more to show for their efforts, which came when the rain saved them in the Sydney Smash on Saturday when had one more over been bowled you would have thought the Thunder would have been reduced to another loss, and almost certainly would have been had there been no rain at all. They begin the second half of their season here and really need a huge turnaround.
The Thunder are another team who really need their bowling to step up. They started the season well by restricting Brisbane Heat to just 151/7, although even that looked a good score on a tricky pitch, Since then they have surrendered scores of 205/4, 172 and 172 and on these big grounds in Australia you are asking a lot of any batting unit to be chasing those sorts of totals, let alone one in which the top four are yet to fire as a collective.
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Key Players
The Sydney Thunder have tended to be particularly weak at the end of their bowling innings and if that trend continues then Tim David could be a huge player for the Hobart Hurricanes in this one as he could elevate a score or make a run chase a whole lot easier.
Cameron Bancroft is the only man who has scored a 50 for the Sydney Thunder in five matches this season, which is a pretty damning statistic, so they could do with his best form in this match if they are going to get over the line.
Betting
This isn’t the easiest game to begin a year with betting wise as two teams with one win from four completed matches meet and in truth it is hard to rely on either of them. The one thing that can get us into the match is the fact that both bowling units have gone around the park and so that should mean that we get a high scoring match of some kind. The question then is how do we use that to our advantage and I think the best way of doing it is to take the boundaries.
The Hobart Hurricanes hit 19 boundaries in an innings which didn’t really get going here against the Melbourne Stars as they were bowled out for 155 where they just couldn’t play spin at all but there aren’t many top level spinners to worry about in this Thunder side. On the flip side of that, while Hobart are aggressive with the ball they will give you the chance to get after them as they look for wickets. There were 50 boundaries in the only fully completed match here and so I like over 37.5 in this one.
Tips
Back Over 37.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
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