Wayne Clark’s BBL Preview: Thunder V Scorchers

Posted on January 2, 2019 | Posted by Wayne Clark

SCORCHERS v THUNDER
Wednesday 02 January 2019

Both teams are coming off losses, but one could say the Thunder’s was a credible loss. Same can’t be said about the Scorchers, who somehow must rectify the top-order batting woes they are experiencing. It seems if they’re not playing on their home wicket, they are struggling to post a winning score.

The Thunder attack is very spin focussed, which will be suited to the Spotless Stadium wicket. Fawad Ahmed has been very good and fellow spinners, Green, Cook and now Nair have made in difficult for opposition teams on this type of surface. The Scorchers who’s record against spin is not great, will again be up against it. They desperately need one of their key players, in Klinger, Turner or Cartwright to bat through the innings. You can’t continually lose wickets in the power-play and expect to post competitive scores.

On the other hand, the Thunder have been terrific in the power play – Josh Butler (competition leading run scorer) and Shane Watson have continually had positive starts. The need for Behrendorf, Coulter-Nile or Richardson to get early wickets will be at an all-time premium. Exposing an inconsistent middle order of Root, Sangha and Sams is a must if the Scorchers hope to win this game.

When coming to select a winner, it is hard to go past the Thunder who play their home pitch so well. Thunder to win!

Tips

Winner: Thunder ($1.77)

Thunder Most Runs: Calum Ferguson ($5.00)
Scorchers Most Runs: Michael Klinger ($3.70)

Thunder Most Wickets: Daniel Sams ($3.70)
Scorchers Most Wickets: Ashton Agar ($8.00)

Odds correct as at 9am, 2nd January 2019.