We head towards the final quarter of the Big Bash League season on Thursday when the bottom placed side host the team on top of the table when the Melbourne Stars take on the Sydney Sixers at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The Stars took a while to come to the boil this season but they are still alive in the competition but have to win here. Sydney are looking good for a top four finish and can enhance their hopes of finishing in the top two with a win here.
Melbourne Stars
The Melbourne Stars are in an all too familiar spot in the league table in this competition. They are bottom of the pile with three matches remaining and are competing for the final spot in the finals at best. The problem is the Brisbane Heat are three points ahead of them so a defeat here would all but end the campaign for the team who have continually underachieved in the history of this tournament. A win would put them right back in the mix but they’d still need to win their last two and hope some results go their way.
The Stars do at least go into this match off the back of successive wins where it probably isn’t a surprise that they won chasing on both occasions. If there is a weakness of this team it comes with an inability to maintain pressure on opposing sides for the full 20 overs with the ball and on the flip side of that the quality that they have with the bat at the top of the order and certainly in the middle of it is very much their strength. Expect the Stars to look to field if given the chance.
Sydney Sixers
While the Stars are in a familiar position, the same can very much be said of the Sydney Sixers. Seeing them on top of the Big Bash League table is nothing new and a win here would take them further clear at the summit. That would move them to within one more win of securing a top four spot, although if results go their way that could be finalised before they are next in action, and then they would have their sights firmly on the top two and two goes at making the final.
We are at the stage of the season where the Test stars are beginning to return so the Sixers will be able to welcome Sean Abbott back into their ranks to strengthen their bowling options but also to lengthen their batting which might be no bad thing here. The Sixers generally bowl very well in this competition and while they have looked a batter light on paper at times, you wouldn’t say it has held them back with four wins from five completed matches to their name so far.
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Key Players
Ben Duckett continues to blaze a trail at the top of the Stars’ batting order and if he can keep getting them off to fast starts then there is no reason to suggest that with what is to come below him the Melbourne outfit can’t challenge for a third straight win.
James Vince plays the final match of his spell with the Sydney Sixers this season in this game and he will want to go out with a big innings. He smashed 101* the last time these two sides met and will want to sign off with something similar.
Betting
I’m a little surprised that there are some bookmakers who can’t split these two sides going into the game. These two have already faced each other this season and the Sydney Sixers were emphatic winners. Admittedly that match was in Sydney but I’m not sure I see what changes or has changed since then to suggest the Sixers shouldn’t be warmer favourites than what they are. I say that for a few reasons too.
The main one is because I think Sydney Sixers can win a match whether they bat first or second with the quality of their bowling attack but also the return of Sean Abbott just balances out their side much better than before. We are not yet at the stage where the Sixers are losing their overseas players to other competitions and Abbott didn’t play in that win earlier in the season. Admittedly the Stars will have Beau Webster and Dan Lawrence available but for me the Sixers are the better team and I can’t avoid them at 10/11.
Tips
Back Sydney Sixers to beat Melbourne Stars for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfred
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