The BBL11 season is in shambles at the moment, but at this stage it looks like it is going to soldier on. Wednesday night will see an interesting double header played, beginning at 7.15pm with the Strikers taking on the Hurricanes.
Mr. Cricket has a 16-1 record on match predictions in the Big Bash League this season and he is back with a full preview and betting tips for the clash below.
BBL11 Strikers vs Hurricanes Betting Tips
Adelaide Oval, Wednesday 5th January, 7.15pm (AEDT)
Adelaide Strikers
Predicted XI: Jake Weatherald, Matt Short, Matt Renshaw, Jono Wells, Henry Hunt, Thomas Kelly, Harry Nielsen, Rashid Khan, Wes Agar, Peter Siddle, Farad Ahmed
The Strikers sit at the very bottom of the BBL table with just one win through their eight games. Their chances of playing in the finals are now all but dashed, so we could see them start to blood a bit of youth in their remaining games. They have been competitive in certain contests, unfortunately their batting line-up just hasn’t looked up to scratch and there is noticeable absence of a real match-winner on that side of the ball like Alex Carey or Travis Head.
Peter Siddle has also had a really average year, and despite being captain, I’m just not sure how long you can keep picking him in the team with one of Daniel Worrall or Wes Agar missing out every night. Will Wednesday night be the night that the Strikers pull the trigger on the ageing veteran who has operated at 9.99 runs per over this season?
Hobart Hurricanes
Predicted XI: Ben McDermott, Matt Wade, D’Arcy Short, Peter Handscomb, Harry Brook, Tim David, Mitch Owen, Jordan Thompson, Tom Rogers, Riley Meredith, Sandeep Lamichhane,
The Canes will have a few injury issues to deal with leading up to this game but at the moment, they look to be unaffected by COVID. Nathan Ellis comes out of the side and his likely replacement in Josh Kann is also unavailable. That will probably push Mitch Owen into the side as the final bowling option.
The Canes batting line-up has been fantastic this season and D’Arcy Short is still yet to fire. Ben McDermott leads the league in runs while Matthew Wade, Harry Brook, Peter Handscomb and Tim David have all chipped in with valuable innings.
Match Prediction
I’ll tell you the problem with the Adelaide Strikers. They have the best T20 bowler in the world in Rashid Khan, who is bowling at an elite level in this edition of the Big Bash League. However, their batting line-up just isn’t capable of posting big enough totals to make players take risks during those middle overs when Khan has the ball.
When you only post 140-150 on a regular basis, opposition batsmen are happy to just milk Rashid for 20 runs off his four overs without taking any risks, which is the reason why the Afghani spin king has the highest strike rate of any of the top top 15 wicket takers in the league this season.
Their batting line-up without Head and Carey is a real achilles heel and on Wednesday night they face one of the most dynamic batting line-ups in the league on what is usually a great batting wicket in Adelaide. I can see the Cane train posting a big score here and winning this one comfortably.
For a little extra value, add the Cane train to score 140+ if they bat first. It should get your bet up to around $2.00
Add Canes 145+ if Bat 1st ($2.00)
Same Game Multi
Like the look of Ben McDermott to bounce back here. The opener got a little unlucky with an LBW call in his last game but was absolutely on fire before that with back to back centuries for the first time in BBL history. I like him to score 20+ on Wednesday night paired with our favourite bet of the first wicket of the match to be caught, a bet that has now saluted in over 80% of games this season.
Ben McDermott 20+ Runs
1st Wicket - Caught
STR vs HUR Same Game Multi
$2.37
