The defending Big Bash League champions Perth Scorchers get their title defence underway on Monday when they host the Adelaide Strikers in the first game of the tournament at the WACA in Perth.
The Scorchers are the last side to begin their season and they will be out for the fastest of starts. Adelaide have already begun the season well with an emphatic win over the Stars in their opening match and another win will see them setting the early pace alongside the Sydney Thunder.
The WACA has been something of a fortress for the Scorchers in seasons gone by and a sell out crowd will be on hand to witness their latest match in the tournament. That crowd will be seeing the Scorchers at their strongest too in terms of personnel.
That is because Cricket Australia have released both Marsh brothers and Nathan Coulter-Nile for this match and with the likes of Adam Voges, Michael Klinger and David Willey also around the Scorchers batting looks very powerful indeed.
Adelaide will be buoyed by their win over the Stars in their season opener but what might give Jason Gillespie and his men more morale and confidence could be the fact that they won with their top order not really delivering so there could be even more to come from them.
Not surprisingly Jason Gillespie has named an unchanged squad for this match and it would be a surprise if the Strikers make a change to their side. If they do it could be to rest a spinner and take another seamer into battle on what is usually a pacey, bouncy track.
The Scorchers are short favourites for this match and having tipped them to win the tournament I’m not going to dispute that but they are too short for me so I will look at the side markets for a bet in this one.
Once again the obvious place to look is the sixes market where the lines are generally at 10.5. Usually here I would say that might be a little high but I think it might be low here given that Perth are at absolute full strength.
That means they can tee off from the start knowing the strength they have in the hutch. Adelaide aren’t quite as strong depth wise but we saw in their first match that they don’t lack for big hitters. With the Fremantle Doctor carrying some shots over the boundary I’m expecting to see at least 11 sixes here and potentially a few more too.
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