English
The Melbourne Renegades will take on the Sydney Thunder in the 40th match of the Big Bash League (BBL) 2021 at Docklands Stadium in Melbourne on Saturday. The Thunder, led by Chris Green, have been outstanding in the ongoing edition of the T20 league. Having won six out of nine matches, they are placed third in the table with 23 points and a net run rate of 0.653. In their previous game, the Thunder defeated the Perth Scorchers by six wickets.
After opting to bat first in a rain-curtailed 18-over game, the Scorchers could only score 133 for the loss of nine wickets. Gurinder Sandhu picked up a four-wicket haul, conceding only 22 runs in four overs. Daniel Sams and Green also managed to keep a check on the run-chasing.
Thereafter, the Thunder tracked the target down in 17 overs. Matthew Gilkes and Alex Hales got them off to a flying start with a partnership of 51 runs. Jason Sangha top-scored for them with a 34-run knock. Cameos from Sam Billings and Oliver Davies helped the Thunder over the finish line.The Renegades, led by Nic Maddinson, on the other hand, are slowly but surely coming up the ladder. The team, once placed at the bottom, has now got up to fifth in the table. Having won two back-to-back games, the Renegades currently have pretty good momentum.
They will come into this match after beating Brisbane Heat by five wickets on January 6. After electing to field first, the Renegades restricted their opponents to 128 for six. Kane Richardson, Zahir Khan Pakteen and Mohammad Nabi picked up two wickets apiece for them.
Jake Lehmann scored 65 runs off 52 balls for the Heat, but he didn’t get much support from others. The Renegades didn’t have to break much sweat in their run-chase as they chased the target down in 15 overs. Shaun Marsh smashed 57 runs to take his team over the line.
Sydney Thunder are placed at the 3rd spot in the Big Bash League 2021-22 points table with 6 wins and 3 losses from their 9 matches of the league. The team has 23 points.Sam Billings is the top run-scorer for Sydney Thunder with 284 runs at a strike rate of 153. He has struck 28 fours and 12 sixes. Jason Sangha has also made 273 runs at a strike rate of 140.Saqib Mahmood has been the best bowler for Sydney Thunder and has picked up 13 wickets while bowling at an average of 16 and an economy rate of 9.13.
Melbourne Renegades are placed at the 5th spot in the Big Bash League 2021-22 points table with 3 wins and 5 losses from their 9 matches of the league. The team has 15 points.Mackenzie Harvey is the top run-scorer for Melbourne Renegades with 214 runs at a strike rate of 116. He has struck 17 fours and 3 sixes. Sam Harper has also made 174 runs at a strike rate of 121.Kane Richardson has been the best bowler for Melbourne Renegades and has picked up 14 wickets while bowling at an average of 16 and an economy rate of 8.29.
Melbourne Renegades will play Sydney Thunder in the 40th match of the tournament. Renegades moved up in the points table with two back-to-back wins over Brisbane Heat and Melbourne Stars and will now look forward to extending their winning run. With 3 wins and 5 losses, they are at the fifth spot in the standings with 15 points.
Spirits are high in the Sydney Thunder camp since, they have won four matches on the trot. They are still maintaining their third spot in the standings with 23 points. Jason Sangha’s addition has become a huge plus point for the Thunder and they are all set to conquer Renegades on Saturday.
MELBOURNE RENEGADES
The Melbourne Renegades won their previous match against a second-strong Brisbane Heat side and that was not at all an unexpected result. Unlike the previous match, though, their opponents for this match are going to be at full strength. We don’t think the Melbourne Renegades have been close to the level required in BBL 2021-22. They have won just three matches so far and failed to compete against the better teams.
Aaron Finch and Shaun Marsh made the most of a weak bowling attack in the previous match but don’t take the performance seen in that match as much of a marker. The batting for Melbourne Renegades has been quite weak and we expect them to struggle in this next match.
We are not going to try and pick the Top Batsman but instead bet against some of their batsmen. Look for the Over/Under on Aaron Finch and bet on the ‘Under’. That could be quite profitable in our opinion since he has a tendency to be over aggressive and gets out early.
The bowling attack is not bad. Zahir Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Kane Richardson, and James Pattinson give the Renegades four world-class bowling options. They will pose a threat to the Sydney Thunder batting lineup for sure. We like betting on Kane Richardson to be the Top Bowler Melbourne Renegades in this match.
SYDNEY THUNDER
Sydney Thunder has been very impressive as a T20 team in this edition of the Big Bash. They have a dynamic and powerful batting lineup and their bowling attack is excellent as well. The one weakness that we can see is the absence of a world-class spinner but that has not held them back too much so far.
The batting lineup features some very impressive names such as Alex Hales and Sam Billings but it is the youngsters that have stood out. Jason Sangha, Matthew Gilkes, and Oliver Davies are as much responsible for the success that Sydney Thunder has had as any other player.
For this lineup, we think hitting more sixes than the Melbourne Renegades should not be a problem. We are going to bet on Sydney Thunder to score the most sixes in this match instead of focusing on individual batting performances.
Among the bowling, Saqib Mahmood and Daniel Sams have been the two standout bowlers for us. We saw Gurinder Sandhu pick another hat-trick (his second in BBL) and end up with four wickets but he really does not strike us as one of the leading bowlers of the team.Sydney Thunder has a lot of options at its disposal and we think its bowling attack should be able to find a way to keep the Melbourne Renegades batting under check.
MATCH DETAILS:
Melbourne Renegades vs Sydney Thunder, Match 40
Venue: Docklands Stadium, Melbourne
Date & Time: January 8th at 12:35 PM IST and 6:05 PM Local Time
PITCH REPORT:
The bounce will be even on this surface and the ball comes easily onto the bat. The bowlers should not pitch it up here. Death-overs will be crucial on this track. Anything more than 180 is hard to chase here.
SQUADS
MELBOURNE RENEGADES:
- Cameron Boyce
- Unmukt Chand (India)
- Zak Evans
- Aaron Finch
- Jake Fraser-McGurk
- Sam Harper
- Marcus Harris
- Mackenzie Harvey
- Zahir Khan (Afghanistan)
- Josh Lalor
- Nic MaddinsoN
- Shaun Marsh
- Mohammad Nabi (Afghanistan)
- James Pattinson
- Mitch Perry
- Jack Prestwidge
- Kane Richardson
- Will Sutherland
- Reece Topley (England)
- Sam Billings (England)
- Jonathan Cook
- Ben Cutting
- Oliver Davies
- Brendan Doggett
- Matt Gilkes
- Chris Green
- Alex Hales (England)
- Baxter Holt
- Usman Khawaja
- Saqib Mahmood (England)
- Nathan McAndrew
- Alex Ross
- Daniel Sams
- Gurinder Sandhu
- Jason Sangha
- Tanveer Sangha
- Chris Tremain
- Mohammad Hasnain (Pakistan)
