BBL08 GAME 54 & 55: SATURDAY DOUBLE HEADER
Nothing short of a huge victory for Sydney Thunder will see them play finals, so expect all-out attack from a side that bats very very deep.
The Re-cap
Ben Cutting being elevated up the order to open then putting on an unbeaten 150 run partnership with Maxy Bryant…we did NOT see that coming! Maxwell and Handscombe let us down big time last night. Let’s see if we can finish the final Saturday of the BBL season off strong.
Likely XI’s
Game 54: Strikers v Scorchers @ Adelaide Oval
Strikers – Carey, Weatherald, Head, Wells, Nielsen, Khan, Neser, Siddle, Laughlin, O’Connor, Stanlake, (Valente, Agar)
- Stanlake and Head in, Ingram and Lehmann out. If they were in the finals equation they would line up as above but given it’s a dead rubber game there is strong reason to think they give Agar and/or Valente a go here, most likely at the expense of Neser and/or Siddle. Monitor final teams.
Scorchers –Klinger, Bancroft, Inglis, Turner, M. Marsh, Terry, Hinchcliff, Coulter-Nile, Kelly, Tye, BehrenDorff, (Hobson, Guthrie)
- Irish Import Sean Terry is into the squad for Hilton Cartwright. No idea what the Scorchers will do here. Klinger is from Adelaide so you’d think maybe he gets a second farewell but there are youngsters here that deserve a go in a dead rubber. Wouldn’t surprise me to see a few of the higher profile names sit this one out.
Game 55: Thunder v Hurricanes @ Spotless Stadium
Thunder – Khawaja, Watson, Patterson, Ferguson, Devcich, Gilkes, Sams, Cummins, Green, Jordan, Ahmed (McAndrew, Sandhu)
- Here come the Thunder! Three big ins for Sydney with Cummins, Khawaja and Patterson all returning. If only they had them a few games earlier. That XI is frighteningly good. They bat down to #9 and their five front line bowling options ae all quality. A really dominant win for the Thunder would see them slide into 4th spot and possibly play finals if the Stars drop their last game so expect all-out attack with the bat.
Hurricanes – Short, Wade, Jewel, McDermott, Bailey, Milenko, Archer, Ahmed, Rose, Meredith, Moody, (Doolan, Rogers)
- Hurricanes unchanged. Flying. Come up against a good side here though.
Selection Committee
To be frank, I have zero clue what will happen in this game and if you do, you’re doing much better than me. Both sides could play multiple youngsters and the batting and bowling orders could changes considerably given that neither side can play finals. This freedom could also see a huge runs-fest as batsman let loose without any finals pressure. I’m taking class top order and death bowling overs and hoping that the field gets sucked into lots of rookies who fail.
Team: Turner, Inglis, Wells, Weatherald, Khan, Tye, Laughlin
Nothing short of a huge victory for Sydney will see them play finals, so expect all-out attack from a side that bats very very deep. The Hurricanes have solid spin options and going hard on the Spotless deck is always risky. For mine it’s spin-to-win at Spotless. Im taking both frontline spinners plus Short’s part time leggies which I think will be used heavily tonight. Have to lap up the value about the returning Thunder stars and I’m ticking with Benny McDermott who will win me a tourney one day!
Short, Khawaja, Patterson, McDermott, Cummings, Ahmed, Ahmad
Final Thoughts
The last week has been a big dry spell in terms of cashing but I’m feeling pretty good about our teams today, confident we can get back in the black before finals then accelerate into a solid profit for the BBL08 season.
BBL08 Balance
Games: 51
Spend: $765
Win: $701.50
Profit: -$63.50