Both the Sydney Thunder and the Perth Scorchers have six points from their five matches in the Big Bash League so far so one of them will break free of that tie when the two sides meet at Spotless Stadium on Thursday.
Both sides lost their last match so it might be that both lack a little bit of confidence ahead of this one but with it being a big match given that the winners will be in pole position to book a home semi-final I’m expecting a very competitive match.
Sydney Thunder went down to the Brisbane Heat in their last match after running into a Chris Lynn masterclass. They shouldn’t lose too much heart from that but clearly it was a defeat against the tide which is enough to refocus their minds.
The Thundernation will have to do without their captain Mike Hussey in this match as he has been ruled out through injury. They are yet to name who will skipper the side in Hussey’s absence but Jacques Kallis or Shane Watson would appear the likeliest candidates. Andrew McDonald replaces Hussey in the squad.
The Scorchers went down to the team rapidly becoming their bogey side in the form of the Adelaide Strikers. The Strikers got away from them with the ball and then for once the Perth top order failed and they weren’t able to turn things around down the order.
The good news for the Scorchers is that Shaun Marsh is still available here before leaving for ODI duty so Perth have named an unchanged squad despite their defeat in Adelaide. It could be that Michael Carberry returns to the side and if he does Ashton Turner could be the man to miss out.
As we’ve seen with the Test match the weather in Sydney has been awful in recent times so what sort of pitch we will get here remains to be seen. In fairness to this ground the wicket hasn’t always been conducive to free flowing batting at the best of times so you would think there could be a bit of life in the track which isn’t ideal.
Given that I can’t really bet in the match itself and given that I’m on Perth outright and if I had to favour someone it would be them anyway I don’t need to bet on the game but I do anticipate a lower scoring match than is ideal in this format.
The Thunder have lost the man they all bat around which isn’t ideal and if the wicket is tacky or lively they might need to rein themselves in whereas the Scorchers rarely hit many sixes but don’t go for many too often either.
All of that makes me believe the sixes line could be a touch high at 11 here and I’ll go under that number particularly given the history of low scores and batting struggles when preparation time has been more ideal than it has ahead of this one.
Back Under 11 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
