BBL6 Game 31 Preview - Hobart Hurricanes V Perth Scorchers @ Blundstone Arena
Hobart Hurricanes (3-4) v Perth Scorchers (4-3) @ Blundstone Arena
Preview - Its a huge game for both the Hurricanes and Scorchers as they meet with plenty to play for at a sold out Blundstone Arena. The Hurricanes need a victory in their regular season finale to retain any hope of sneaking into the finals in 4th place. The Hurricanes are behind the Renegades only marginally in net run rate, so a big win could yet see them jump the Renegades which would leave them sweating on the result of the Stars and Sixers game later tonight. The Hurricanes have had 9 days off since their astonishing come from behind victory against the Renegades. The Hurricanes ran down a BBL record score of 222 courtesy of a quite unbelievable hundred by Ben McDermott. The Scorchers have had an up and down campaign, however can be assured a final's berth with a victory against the Hurricanes. The Scorchers place in the finals is not quite secure with a heavy loss putting them in some jeopardy of missing out. Last season when the sides met at Blundstone Arena, the game was a belter with the Scorchers clinging on to win by one run.
Squad Changes - The Hurricanes make just one change to their squad for this do or die fixture with Clive Rose coming back in for Sam Rainbird. Left arm orthodox spinner Rose had done a decent job in the bowling Power Play for the Hurricanes without picking up many wickets in the first few games before being dropped. Meanwhile the Scorchers welcome back a couple of key players with Adam Voges and Sam Whiteman coming in for Cameron Bancroft and Josh Inglis. Voges has missed the past three games after straining a hamstring, while Whiteman has recovered from a nasty blow to the head while batting. Both Voges and Whiteman will add quality depth to the Scorchers already deep middle order.
Hobart Hurricanes Scouting Report - The Hurricanes' batting has been feast or famine in BBL6 and not much in between. Whilst openers Tim Paine and Darcy Short were prolific early in the tournament, they have gone off the boil as the Hurricanes have got off to dreadful starts in their past three games. The Hurricanes have lost 2 wickets in the first 4 overs of their last 3 matches, and can ill afford another poor start in this must win match. However, in Ben McDermott and captain George Bailey, the Hurricanes have two of the hottest current batsman in BBL6. McDermott crushed 114 from 52 against the Renegades, belting the only century of BBL6 to date, and has looked in monstrous form in both games since replacing Kumar Sangakkara at Number 3. George Bailey is quietly putting together another quality BBL season after key contributions in the past two games. Bailey has 237 runs at an average of 59 and a strike rate of 136.
The Hurricanes have really struggled with the ball for large parts of the BBL and will need to improve rapidly today if they want to win this big game. To emphasise their struggles, the Hurricanes have just one of the leading 20 wicket takers in the BBL6, with Dan Christian coming in equal 7th spot. They really need the likes of Stuart Broad and Cameron Boyce to step up in this game as they surely won't be be able to rely on chasing over 200 for the second game running.
Perth Scorchers Scouting Report - The Scorchers have really gone off the boil with the bat in the past three games and those struggles are directly related to their top order woes. Shaun Marsh is yet to pass 20 in 6 games, and Ian Bell, after a great start, has struggled in the past four games. Bell now has 174 runs at an average of 24 and strike rate of 119 as his production has really tapered off. The Scorchers have struggled to find a replacement at Number 4 since Mitchell Marsh has departed, however with Adam Voges and Sam Whiteman back in the line up, I expect one of those guys to try and take on that responsibility.
The Scorchers continue to be one of the most consistent and miserly bowling sides in BBL6. Even since losing David Willey they have good depth in their pace attack. Andrew Tye has once again been one of the leading bowlers in BBL6 with 9 wickets at an average of 17 and a very impressive economy rate of 6.3. Mitchell Johnson has 7 wickets at 24, with an economy rate of 7.7 which is good for a fast bowler. Ashton Agar has been very impressive in the past two games, bowling extremely tightly and building a lot of pressure from one end. It will be interesting to see their plans for McDermott with Blundstone Arena usually having a very short square boundary.
Verdict - The Hurricanes have been a very hard team to get a read on this season, with their feast or famine type performances. In front of a sold out home crowd, with plenty to play for, you would expect them to be close to their best in this game. The Scorchers are also the sort of side that traditionally rebound really well from a loss. The Hurricanes have an explosive Top 3 and it will be interesting to see how that fares against the more conservative and deeper Perth batting line up. I think this game will depend on which teams weaker areas steps up. If the Scorchers can find some runs out of Shaun Marsh and Ian Bell, I expect them to be very hard to beat. If the Hurricanes can get more wickets and tighter bowling from Stuart Broad and Cameron Boyce, I expect them to be very hard to beat. The team batting first will be looking for a score of 180+ at a Blundstone ground which is generally in the Top 2 or 3 for batting in the competition.
The Lurker - "It's a massive game for both teams but I am going to stick with the Scorchers. Surely Shaun Marsh can do something here - get on him to score 25+ into a Scorchers' win. Also have a lash at the High Bat double of Ian Bell into George Bailey".