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Match Preview: Heat seek elusive first win, Strikers eye momentum at the Gabba

Mayank Kumar


The Brisbane Heat are going to clash against the Adelaide Strikers in the 13th match of the league on 23 December hoping to open their winning account in the ongoing season of the Big Bash League. 

Heat have not been able to play as a unit and at least one department of their team has failed them in the two matches that they have played. In the first game of this campaign, their batting line up was left exposed against a potent Melbourne Stars bowling attack while in the second match their bowlers were not good enough to defend 180 against the Sydney Thunder.

There were decent spells of bowling by all the bowlers but an awful performance from the experienced head of Ben Laughlin proved detrimental for the Heat in Canberra in their last game. 

After playing first two tough games on away pitches, Lynn would be delighted to come back to Gabba and will be hoping for his team to come back as a unit strongly as one more loss will start staring at them with a lot of uncomfortable questions.

On the other hand, the Adelaide Strikers have started their campaign in decent fashion, with one win out of the three games they have played this season. The solitary win came against the Hobart Hurricanes where Peter Siddle broke the back of Hurricanes’ batting up and picked up a fifer and any chance of their revival with the ball was thwarted by a dominating Jack Weatherald with the bat at the top of the order.

However, on the days of two losses, the Strikers bowlers were made to look like an ordinary attack by the likes of D’Arcy Short and Daniel Christian who smashed them to all over the park, and in the reply, the Strikers’ batsmen could not quite match the firepower of their counterparts. For the Strikers, the trouble will be more as the captain Alex Carey and Harry Conway will not be able to travel to Brisbane due to the Covid-19 protocols set by the Queensland state administration.

The match will be very crucial for the Brisbane Heat who will be desperately looking to get off the mark while Adelaide Strikers would be hoping to fine-tune their tactics in order to bring more efficiency and consistency in the team.

Thunder vs Scorchers: Match Details

Venue: Gabba, Brisbane

Date and Time: December 22, 01:45 PM IST, 06:15 PM Local, 08:15 AM GMT

Broadcasters: Sony Sports Network, Sony LIV

Pitch Report

The Gabba has a reputation of producing pitches that support pace and bounce but that has not hurt batsmen in the past in hitting some of the biggest sixes in the history of the BBL.

Lynn would hope for a pitch that will assist his bowlers early on but Adelaide Strikers have the firepower to extract advantage in their favour with the ball.

The average first innings score at the Gabba has been 165 runs and out of 39 BBl matches at the venue, teams batting first have won only 17 times while the team who opted or were made to chase were able to win the game on 21 occasions.

Weather and Toss

The weather conditions in Brisbane are likely to be perfect for cricket in the city as the temperature will hover between a maximum of 31 degrees and a minimum of 22 degrees. There is no chance of rain and it augurs well for both sides who are looking to get back to winning ways to stake a claim on the title.

It’s no brainer that the captain who will win the toss will decide to chase, looking at the past record as well as the expected nature of the pitch that will not change over the course of 40 overs.

Strongest XI

Brisbane Heat

Max Bryant, Sam Heazlett, Chris Lynn (c), Daniel Lawrence, Tom Cooper, Jack Wildermuth, Jimmy Pierson (wk), Mark Steketee, Matt Kuhnemann, Ben Laughlin, Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Adelaide Strikers

Phil Salt, Jake Weatherald, Matt Renshaw, Harry Nielsen (wk), Jon Wells, Matt Short, Liam Scott, Rashid Khan, Wes Agar, Peter Siddle (c), Danny Briggs

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