FANTASY
Follow UsWe are getting to the business end of the 2020/21 Big Bash League and the race to finish in a playoff spot is heating up. While a place in the top five might be the first priority, every team will want to finish as high as possible on the league table as it would make their route to the final easier.
On Tuesday (January 12), Perth Scorchers and Hobart Hurricanes will face off in a crucial match, with the two teams finding themselves fifth and fourth currently.
In matches between the two teams in the Big Bash League, the Scorchers have the slight edge, winning seven out of 13 contests. The Hurricanes, though, have had the better of the Scorchers in four of the last five meetings between these sides.
BBL HEAD-TO-HEAD
Overall: Matches – 13 | Scorchers – 7 Wins | Hurricanes – 6 Wins
Last 5 Matches: Scorchers – 1 Win | Hurricanes – 4 Wins
SUGGESTED TEAMS
While you could go for the above team, you also have the option of choosing your own team from cricket.com’s Fantasy Research Centre. Based on algorithms we come up with six different teams that could fetch crucial points.
GROUND DETAILS & TEAM COMBINATION
In BBL 10, at the Perth Stadium, the run-rate has been 8 with a wicket falling every 21.5 runs and 16 deliveries. On that basis, you could say that conditions have been slightly bowler-friendly and, therefore, we’ve gone with four front-line bowlers.
Spinners have done quite well at this venue this season, picking up 34.6% of the wickets, despite bowling 30.6% of the overs. They also have a better strike rate (14.9 vs 17.8), average (19.2 vs 24.2) and economy rate (7.7 vs 8.2) when compared to pacers at the Perth Stadium so far in BBL 10.
Mitchell Marsh is someone we wanted to pick in our team but couldn’t do so because of budget constraints. If that isn’t an issue for you, you should look to select him.
There could be a few interesting match-ups too.
With Colin Munro not playing, there could be more responsibility for Mitchell Marsh in this game. If he does come out to bat in the middle overs, there’s a good chance he’ll be up against Sandeep Lamichhane. This contest has occurred just twice in T20 cricket previously, with Marsh scoring 10 runs from nine deliveries with no dismissals – not a great sample size.
Dawid Malan and Andrew Tye are two crucial players for their respective teams, so this contest if it takes place could have a huge bearing on the result of the match. So far, Malan has scored 23 runs from 20 balls and been dismissed once in three innings by Tye in T20 cricket.
CAPTAIN SELECTION
While D’Arcy Short hasn’t been at his best this season with the bat, the fact that he can get you points with the ball as well – something we saw in the last game – is the reason we have picked him as captain. Short has scored 141 runs and taken six wickets in nine matches this season, but we all know that he is capable of much better.
Our Criclytics player projector predicts Short could score 14-37 runs and could take 0-1 wickets in this match.
X-FACTORS
Something that would frustrate Jason Roy is that he has been getting starts but hasn’t been able notch up a big score this season. In four out of five innings, he has scored above 20 but is yet to reach fifty. Having said that, he is one of the foremost limited-overs opening batsmen in the world and, with teammate Munro ruled out, Roy looks like the best option from the Scorchers batting line-up.
Our Criclytics player projector predicts Roy could score 14-37 runs in this match.
Dawid Malan is the No.1-ranked batsman in T20Is and that’s with good reason. When it comes to overall T20 cricket, since the start of 2019, Malan averages 36.9 which is a very good number. He has done quite well in BBL 10 so far as well, scoring 175 runs in five innings at an average of 35. As he is quite consistent, we have selected him as vice-captain.
Our Criclytics player projector predicts Malan could score 14-37 runs in this match.
Jhye Richardson has been sensational and has played an important role in the Scorchers’ turnaround in form in recent games. While he is the joint-highest wicket-taker (17) so far this season, he has taken 11 wickets in his last four matches, each of which the Scorchers have won. In eight games so far this season, he has gone wicketless just once.
Our Criclytics player projector predicts Richardson could take 1-2 wickets in this match.
