Two sides with semi-final aspirations meet at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday when the illustrious Melbourne Stars host the Hobart Hurricanes in the latest 20 over showdown in the Big Bash League.
The Stars have recovered from losing their first two matches to win their latest two and another win here will push them right into the semi-final mix. All that said they should have won one of the matches they lost so the powerhouse Stars side aren’t going too badly.
The men in green will be buoyed by the return to their squad of Scott Boland after he was omitted from the Test side for the match in Sydney over the weekend. If he plays he could come in for Michael Beer or Ben Hilfenhaus.
Hobart Hurricanes were well beaten by the Melbourne Renegades last time out. That was their second hefty defeat of the competition so if they are to go through they will need to do it on points because their run rate has taken a couple of huge dents.
They have named an unchanged squad for this match but will clearly need to bat much better than they did against the Renegades. George Bailey heads off to the Australian ODI squad after this match and I’m sure he’ll be looking to go out in style.
These two sides are both semi-final contenders but with the Stars having two losses so far and Hobart’s run rate being atrocious it isn’t stretching the truth to say that the loser here will be fighting hard to make it into the playoffs.
I think the Stars will win this for a couple of reasons. They are the better side, certainly with the ball, and they have the more individual match winners. The other reason I think they will win is because Hobart have tended to struggle when starting badly and that is a concern.
I’m not convinced their batting unit is in good nick. Obviously Bailey and Christian are going well and Paine has had the odd good knock but the only times they have put a score up was against Brisbane Heat which isn’t much of a form guide.
When the Hurricanes have been beaten they’ve been well beaten so I’m going to chance that this is another one sided beating and take the Stars on what actually isn’t the biggest handicap in the world and one they’ve covered in both their wins thus far.
Back Melbourne Stars (-2.5 wickets/8.5 runs) to beat Hobart Hurricanes for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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