Wayne’s Preview – Scorchers v Heat

Posted on January 4, 2018June 7, 2018 | Posted by Wayne Clark

What a mouth-watering contest this is going to be – we could see this match-up come finals time.  One of the most explosive batting line ups in the league against a bowling attack that prides itself on how it restricts and strangles opposition batting teams.

The Heat top order of McCullum (126runs SR 151), Lynn (88/151), Burns (114/148) and later Ross (125/137) have proven very good on the fast Gabba wicket and will back themselves to take down the Scorchers quicks.  Loss of early wickets is a concern though, as their batting depth isn’t great.  The Scorchers will be aware of this but now with no Johnson (rested), the responsibility will be on Richardson, Willey and maybe Paris to make early in-roads.  Their performances will go a long way to influencing the result of this game because the Heat relies so much on their top four.  It will be interesting if the Heat open with “the bash boys” or will they bring Pearson back as opener?

The Scorchers batting stood-up on Monday night against the Sixers – Klinger was magnificent, Turner again proved his worth and young Tim David showed the depth of the teams’ squad.  They will need to continue this form against an attack that has been inconsistent and lacking a little bit of class.  Yasif Shah has now added an x-factor and Josh Lalor (6wks) has bowled well at the Gabba.

It’s a tough one to pick and it’s hard to believe that the Scorchers (4 from 4) will go in as under-dogs, but with Johnson out, coupled with being played at the Gabba, it now slightly weights in the Heats favour.

I’m backing the Heat by a whisker!!

	Winner	Most Wickets	Most Runs
Scorchers		Tye	Klinger
Heat	Heat	Shah	Burns