It might be New Year’s Eve on Thursday but that doesn’t mean the Big Bash League isn’t in operation. As is tradition with the tournament now the Adelaide Oval will play host to the NYE bash as the Adelaide Strikers host the Sydney Sixers.
The sold out signs are up for this one and the 50,000+ in attendance will be watching two sides who already have two wins to their name in the tournament.
The Strikers won their opening two matches against the Melbourne Stars and the Perth Scorchers but they went down in a low scoring affair to the Sydney Thunder last time out and will be aiming to get back to winning ways in this game.
The Sixers have played an extra match to the Strikers. They have played four times and won twice and need a win to keep control of their own destiny here. They lost the opening Sydney smash before wins against the Hurricanes and the Renegades before another defeat to the Stars last time out.
Adelaide have kept with the same squad which went down to the Thunder last time out which means we get to see Alex Ross again. He is touted to be a surprise call up to Australia’s T20 squad when it is announced. Barring a late injury the Strikers should be unchanged.
An unchanged squad isn’t a luxury which will come the Sixers’ way. They will be without their captain Moises Henriques who went lame in the last match while Steve O’Keefe has joined up with Australia for the New Year Test. Trent Lawford has also been ruled out. Ed Cowan is among those coming in to the squad and he could make the starting line up.
I think the Sixers are going to struggle for the rest of this tournament. They didn’t have the deepest squad in terms of quality to begin with and some big absentees are hurting them badly so the Strikers look worthy favourites to me here.
That said I can’t say I’m in a rush to back a side who were restricted so badly in their last match so I will head to the side markets for a bet here and given that we’re at the Adelaide Oval the obvious market of choice is the sixes one.
There has only been one match in Adelaide this season but it had 11 sixes in it and I’m expecting at least that many here. Adelaide just hit five sixes against the other Sydney side even though they made less than a run a ball overall.
The Sixers might lack for batting depth but they don’t lack for aggression with the bat so I’m expecting them to target the ropes throughout this innings. Both teams have explosive power at the top of their orders so we should get into double figures for sixes at the very least here.
Back 10 or more sixes for a 5/10 stake at 1.73 with Bet365
