The Big Bash League season continues on Saturday when we head back to Sydney for the clash between the Sydney Thunder and the Hobart Hurricanes, the repeat of the final of last year, at the Sydney Showground.
Hobart won that final last year and they also won the reverse meeting of these two at Ninja Stadium this season too so there is plenty of revenge for the Thunder to go in search of. Hobart will be looking for a fifth win of the season.
Sydney Thunder
The Sydney Thunder have just one win from their opening five matches and their net run rate has now fallen pretty badly as well so they are going to need to get winning quickly if they are to emulate their run to the final from last season. Unless their net run rate has a dramatic improvement then you would think the Thunder are going to need to win out from here, although the table is that bunched that they might get away with four wins from five if one of them if a particularly big victory.
They can’t rely on that though so really need to get the job done themselves. If that is going to happen then they really need their bowlers to come to the party. Some of the bowling they sent down in their loss to Perth last time out was horrendous and they can’t win matches if that doesn’t improve. Their batting is going well enough considering the pressure that has been on them, but if their bowling doesn’t get better it is hard to see the Thunder getting the results that they need.
Hobart Hurricanes
The Hobart Hurricanes arrive in Sydney second in the league and very much in control of where they want to be but they did lose their last match and they might have a bit to prove off the back of that. The other thing to note about the Hurricanes is that they have played more matches than all bar one team and so a defeat here could quickly see a positive position in the standings become a precarious one so we should expect a much stronger showing from Hobart here.
They won’t need telling that their bowling has to be better in this match. To be fair to them, Mitchell Marsh in good touch with a short boundary to one side of the ground aren’t favourable bowling situations but they can’t allow themselves to be carted in the fashion that they were in the second half of the innings in that match. To their credit, they still scored the better part of 200 in a losing cause so it isn’t like the whole team underperformed. They must find more with the ball here though.
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Key Players
Wes Agar comes into the Sydney Thunder squad for this match now that Reece Topley has left to fulfil SA20 commitments and the men in green could really do with him taking a couple of new ball poles and set the tone for the bowling effort.
Mitch Owen has been left out of the Australia squad for the T20 World Cup next month and you would imagine that he will be keen to show the selectors what they have left at home so expect big hitting and clean bowling from him.
Betting
I think the Hobart Hurricanes are the better of these two teams but I certainly can’t bring myself to be backing them after that last bowling effort but the same thing really applies to the Sydney Thunder too so I’m going to go with both sets of bowlers continuing to struggle after having their confidence dented in their last showing and go with this match being a relatively high scoring one. There is other evidence of that being likely to be the case too.
The two first innings in matches on this ground this season have been 198/5 and 202/8 so there is every chance that a massive chunk of the 321.5 run line for this one will be taken out in the first innings and then the second team can limp home to get this covered. Both sides made 180 when the two met earlier in the season, as they did in the final these two played last term. This line has been covered in their last three meetings and given how badly they bowled in their last match I’ll take it to be covered here too.
Tips
Back Over 321.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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