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BBL 10 Match 1: HUR vs SIX Preview Dream11 Possible Playing 11 Pitch Report | HBH vs SS Dream11 Prediction Today | Hobart Hurricanes vs Sydney Sixers Key Players | Hobart Pitch Report
In what has been a year where we haven’t had much cricket courtesy of the Covid-19 pandemic, and majority of the tours have been played at limited venues to maintain the biosecure bubble, the Big Bash League returns for its 10th season at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart.
The defending champions, Sydney Sixers, take on the Hobart Hurricanes in what promises to be an exciting inaugural encounter for all the fans. 2020 has been an absurd year from a global point of view and like the majority of the cricket played this year, the spotlight has been on rules and regulations rather than the game itself. BBL 10 has been no exception to this and building up to this glamorous tourney, the new gimmick of rules has attracted more attention. Cricket watchers from all over the world have their sights on the ‘Bash Boost, X-Factor and power surge’.
This is also the first T20 league which will be played in as many as nine venues and spectators will be allowed to witness action from the stands.
Sixers, who won the BBL 09 Title earlier this year, will start off without their regular skipper Moses Henriques who is a part of the Australia ‘A’ squad which will play India in the tour game. It will be interesting to see who dons the captaincy role in the absence of the all-rounder. They will also miss the services of pacers Jackson Bird and Sean Abbott, who are a part of the squad of the Australia ‘A’ and Australian national teams respectively. The side will miss the services of English all-rounder Tom Curran who was impressive in his seven outings last season as he picked 14 wickets. He also played the role of a finisher aptly scoring at a strike of 194 in the death overs, while averaging over 50.
The Sydney-based side will miss the majority of their big names in the initial round of matches, owing to quarantine regulations and international duties and hence it is important for them to get to a decent start so that the full strength side doesn’t have much work to do at the back-end of the tournament.
On the other hand are the Hobart Hurricanes who were knocked out of the tournament in the Eliminator in BBL 09. All the talk pre-season has been about coach Johan Botha who has come out of retirement to ply his trade for the Hurricanes in the upcoming season. The decision was influenced by the fact that Hurricanes will be without their lead spinner Sandeep Lamichhane, who is in quarantine as he had tested positive for Covid-19. The leg-spinner picked 15 wickets in 13 matches for the Melbourne Stars last season.
Just like their opponents, the two-time runners-up will be also be missing their key players Dawid Malan and Keemo Paul, who will be available post-Christmas. Matthew Wade will be unavailable as he is a part of the national Test squad and hence Faulkner, Short, Handscomb or Botha himself might be taking up leadership role for the home side.
When the two teams met last season, Hurricanes were victories over the eventual champions as they edged out the Sixers by 25 runs in what turned to be a low-scoring encounter as Qais Ahmed picked 4 wickets, while Faulkner and Milenko picked a couple of wickets apiece. D’Arcy Short was the only batsman among the runs scoring 40-ball half-century.
Key Players to Watch/Key Stats
Sydney Sixers:
- Josh Phillipe was the third-leading run-getter in BBL last season with 487 runs (avg. 37.46, SR 129.86) and scored a match-winning half-century in the Final.
- James Vince has struck 93 runs against Hobart Hurricanes, at an average of 46.50. This includes a score of 74.
- Lloyd Pope picked 10 wickets in 8 games for the Sixers last season at an economy rate of 7.14.
- Dan Christian will be facing his former side as the Sixers will hope that their star signing comes good in his first game of the 8-nation extravaganza. He has scored 241 runs at a strike rate of 161.74 (avg. 40.17) vs the Hurricanes in his BBL career.
- Stephen O’Keefe picked seven wickets at a parsimonius rate of 6.92 in BBL 09, as he was instrumental part of the bowling attack which led the Sixers to their 2nd title.
- Ben Dwarshuis was the second-highest wicket-taker for the Sydney-based side as he picked 16 wickets in as many games in BBL 09.
Hobart Hurricanes:
- D’Arcy Short- The southpaw has a strike rate of 143 in what has been an illustrious BBL career so far and has scored 1209 runs in the past two BBL seasons. Also, Short has scored 250 runs at an average of 50 against the Sixers.
- Johan Botha- The former Protea will be a local player for this edition. In his last BBL season in 2018-19, the off-spinner plied his trade for the Hurricanes. He has picked 39 wickets in 65 BBL games while bowling at an economy rate of 7.1 RPO.
- Nathan Ellis picked 12 wickets in 15 BBL games last season as he bowled at an economy rate of just under 8 runs per over. He will be Hobart’s go-to man at the death.
- Scott Boland bowled at an economy rate of 7.75 in the powerplay last season. He had an excellent tournament overall, taking 15 wickets in 10 matches.
- Riley Meredith took 10 wickets in six matches in BBL 09.
- Mac Wright scored a couple of half-centuries in the latter half of BBL 09 which helped Hurricanes reach the play-offs. The same will be expected from Wright this season as well.
Stats and Facts
- Head-to-Head: Hurricanes 6 wins, Sixers 5 wins.
- Hobart Hurricanes have won 4 out of their 5 last matches against the Sydney Sixers.
- Sixers last won against the Hurricanes at the Bellerive Oval way back in the 2014-15 BBL.
- Johan Botha has the best economy rate in BBL history for the Hobart Hurricanes.
Possible Playing 11
The Hurricanes have confirmed their 14-man squad.
Hobart Hurricanes: Expectedly, there will be a lot of excitement over the participation of Johan Botha in this game. Also, there will be some curiosity which player captains the team. Ben McDermott will be with the Australia A squad.
Possible Playing XI: 1. Will Jacks, 2. D’Arcy Short, 3. Caleb Jewell, 4. Peter Handscomb, 5. Colin Ingram, 6. Mac Wright, 7. James Faulkner, 8. Nathan Ellis, 9. Johan Botha, 10. Scott Boland, 11. Riley Meredith
Likely to be 12th, 13th and 14th men (and could be X-Factor players): Tim David, Charlie Wakim, Nick Winter
Sydney Sixers: Similar to the home side, Sixers also have the dilemma of choosing who be their captain in the first match of the tournament. Henriques, Bird, Malan and Abbott are players who will be missing out and it will be worth to keep an eye on who replaces them.
Possible Playing XI: 1. Josh Philippe, 2. James Vince, 3. Daniel Hughes, 4. Jordan Silk, 5. Justin Avendano, 6. Dan Christian, 7. Carlos Brathwaite, 8. Steve O’Keefe, 9. Ben Dwarshuis, 10. Gurinder Sandhu, 11. Lloyd Pope
Bellerive Oval Hobart Pitch and Weather Report
The ground has been a high-scoring venue in the recent past and the same will be expected when the two teams take the field on Thursday. There will be a bit of wind in the air but there no chances of rain.
Dream11 Prediction
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Match Prediction
Both the teams will be missing several big names but given that Hurricanes will field several players who were impressive last season, the home side will start as favourites although Sixers will give them a run for their money.
Written by Sarthak Karkhanis. Follow Sarthak on Twitter today.
