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Match Preview: Winless Scorchers up against imperfect Strikers in key contest

Akshay Saraswat


Perth Scorchers are looking to finally get off the mark in the ongoing 10th season of the Big Bash League (BBL). They will have another opportunity when they take on Adelaide Strikers on Monday. 

The Strikers won their last match by the barest of margins. Their performances have been inconsistent with the bowling department showing more efficiency than the batting one. They too are in need of another victory as their current place in the points table - fifth - isn't satisfactory. 

Strikers Look to Strike Again

For the Strikers, the biggest question going into the game against Scorchers is the availability of their ace bowler Rashid Khan. After two relatively unimpressive performances, Rashid came into his own in the last match and showed why he is the premier leg-spinner in the world. 

However, he then sustained an injury which isn't as bad as feared but still bad enough to cloud the chances of his participation in the game on Monday. He has been kept in the squad and would undergo a fitness test before the match. 

Luckily for Strikers, Danny Briggs has also found form. His performance in the last match almost overshadowed of the more high-profile tweaker in his team. His tight line and length and ability to bowl with the new ball would come in handy. 

Among pacers, Peter Siddle is in really good form and is bowling the yorkers really well. Wes Agar too, looks in good rhythm. 

The batting, though, needs to pick up. Alex Carey and Jack Weatherald are the only two batsmen in the team to have got half-centuries so far in the tournament. There will be pressure on other batters to justify their place in the team. 

Scorchers Seek First Win

On paper, Perth Scorchers' bowling attack looks very competent. However, they haven't produced an impressive performance so far and there hasn't also been individual efforts worth taking note of. 

What is most disappointing is the fact that Fawad Ahmed, the leg-spinner, hasn't got going. Leg-spinners have emerged as leading match winnners in this format, especially in Big Bash. Fawad has to step up. 

The batting looks very capable. Colin Munro and Mitchell Marsh have looked in good touch. The New Zealander is a very good striker of the cricket ball and his timing seemed perfect in the previous matches. Marsh too scored a good fifty in the last game. 

On top of that, Ashton Turner too got some lusty hits under his belt. These three men would lead the batting charge but more would be required from the rest of the batting line-up. 

Strikers vs Scorchers: Match Details

Venue: Adelaide Oval, Adelaide

Date and Time: December 28, 1:45 PM IST, 7:15 PM Local, 8:15 AM GMT

Broadcaster: Sony Sports Network, Sony LIV

Pitch Report

This will be the first match of the season at Adelaide. So, the pitch would be a bit of a mystery. However, traditionally, the strip on this ground is flat and and helps spinners a bit. This would bring the tweakers in both sides in play. 

Weather and Toss

A cool evening awaits both the teams for their match on Monday. No clouds or rain are expected and the temperature is expected to fall below 15 degrees. Since no overcasat conditions are expected, the toss would not be a big factor. It usually isn't anyway in T20 matches. 

Probable XIs

Strikers: Phil Salt, Jake Weatherald, Matt Renshaw, Jonathan Wells, Matthew Short, Harry Nielsen (Wk), Rashid Khan (if fit), Daniel Worrall, Danny Briggs, Peter Siddle (C), Wes Agar

Scorchers: Josh Inglis (Wk), Colin Munro, Joe Clarke, Mitchell Marsh, Ashton Turner (C), Cameron Bancroft, Jhye Richardson, Aaron Hardie, Andrew Tye, Jason Behrendorff, Fawad Ahmed

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Will be accused of backing Mumbaikar if I praise Rahane's captaincy: Sunil Gavaskar

Former Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar was slightly impressed with the tactics of the Indian team under the captaincy of Ajinkya Rahane but said that he would refrain from calling him as a great captain as he could be accused of bias in the favour of a Mumbaikar. He also said that Rahane was very early in his captaincy days and that it would be premature to judge his captaincy credentials. “Let’s not jump into conclusions too quickly. If I say that his captaincy is outstanding, then again, I will be accused of backing a Mumbai boy and all kinds of things will happen. So I don’t want to get into that because these are early days,” Gavaskar said on Sony Sports Network from Australia. However, he did not hold back from looking back on what he had observed in the only two Test matches he had captained the side before. He said that the field placements he had set for Marnus Labuscgange highlighted the Rahane’s reading of the game, but, it was also down to the bowler to execute those plans, otherwise Rahane would not be looking like the captain he appears now. “From what I have seen in the last 2 Tests he captained and the one-day matches he captained, he has got a great sense of where the fielders should be kept,” Gavaskar said. “Having said that, it’s very important for the bowlers to bowl to their field. If the bowlers bowl to the field, as they did today, then the captain looks very good.” India have secured a lead of 82 runs at the end of the second day’s play at the MCG on the back of Ajinkya Rahane’s century and resistance from Ravindra Jadeja.

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Inside out | Ajinkya Rahane shows character to own the MCG yet again

Ajinkya Rahane was the fifth man to go in the mayhem that the Australian bowlers had creed on the third and final day of the Adelaide Test, and while walking back to the pavilion a thought about where does he go with the bat in the series and impact of another bad series overseas must have crossed crossed his mind. Nevertheless, he was the vice-captain and was to lead the side as Virat Kohli’s tour was over after the first Test. There was a sense of calamity after the debacle in Adelaide, and more worryingly for Rahane, he was seeming as part of the problem, not solutions as India were staring for another gruelling contest that the Boxing Day Test was offering from the outset. His worries were deepened by the injury to Mohammed Shami as he could have been all the mainstays of the team falling away as he was about to lead that team in the next three Test matches against the Australian who were smelling blood. There were arguments about him taking the more aggressive option when facing dilemmas and the injury to Shami and Kohli’s inevitable return confronted him with a lot of dilemmas. He vindicated the experts and fans who were calling him an ‘aggressive captain’ by picking five bowlers, even at the expense of Wriddhiman Saha, who has been rated as the best gloveman in the country. He backed the duo of Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja to come good while Hanuma Vihari was trusted to bind the innings together at the number. Rahane opted to promote himself, walking away from the subtle hints he had dropped in the tour games when Vihari was batting ahead of him in the batting order in a move that appeared like he were to replace Kohli at the number four position. All these moves even before the first ball was bowled justified the praise he has been getting for being an ‘aggressive captain.’ The day two of the game confronted him with yet another challenge as both Cheteshwar Pujara and Shubman Gill got dismissed fairly early in the day and he was back to grind in the middle, after his short stay in the seconds innings of the Adelaide Test. There must have been dilemmas in his mind about approaching his innings against the on fire pace trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood and to make the matter worse for him at the start of the innings in his head, he also had to counter Nathan Lyon who has celebrated a good amount of success against him. It would have been tempting for him to attempt a counter attacking start and see if it can survive through the early phase of belligerence, to settle down for a big one as the Australians threatened to not to allow any let up in the bowling attack. This Australian attack goes relentlessly at batsmen, and they don’t give away easy runs for the batsmen to run away with the game, and Rahane would have well realised the fact in the first innings of the Adelaide Test when he and Virat Kohli were squeezed for runs by the Australian attack. Had he gone by the popular belief about him, he would have attacked the bowlers. But, he looked circumspect, but importantly, more decisive in his footwork than in his previous Test innings overseas. He was tested outside the off stump but he was not willing to take the bait and opened his account only on the 17th ball he faced while his first boundary came off on the 27th delivery. At least at the start of the innings, Rahane defied the popular belief about him knowing only aggressive game when facing a tough challenge. He dared to wait for his moment rather than trying to create one and believed in his defence to combat whatever the raging bowling attack had to offer and for a period of their maximum perseverance. His fortitude and reluctance to play expensive shots could have left India in a bubble, but Rishabh Pant came in handy for both him and India as his swashbuckling shots broke the flow of the game towards India. When Pant departed, India were just 22 runs away from Australia's score, but Rahane looked in no hurry to bridge that gap and rather he was batting in his zone and had a bigger picture of having a substantive lead over Australia in his mind. As the state of play approached towards the second new ball, Rahane was calm to confront yet another challenge as he was there in the middle when the new Kookaburra had wreaked havoc against him and his teammates in Adelaide on Day 1. There was no let up this time though as his efforts of putting his head down in the initial phase of the innings started to pay off against the new ball. Australians went desperate in search of wickets as the lead started growing over and bowled deliveries in the absolute full zone to extract the maximum assistance off the pitch and in the air. Tim Paine would have hoped for a similar return to what Starc could offer in Adelaide, but Rahane had found his feet and was not sitting back in the crease. Rahane showed his supremacy and showcased the zone he was batting when Cummins lured him with really full deliveries in the 82th over and Rahane was sublime in his riposte with nice strides down the pitch of the ball to time the ball in his trademark fashion past midd off. He forced Cummins to shorten his length and when the number one pacer in the world did oblige on the next ball, Rahane stood on his toes to send a signal to the his dressing room that he version of him which was highly celebrated for strokemaking on tough pitches against quality pace attacks, was back in reckoning. When Rahane was batting in his prime, the off drives and punch through cover were the main weapon in his arsenal and he started to flourish again at the MCG, where he had dominated Mitchell Johnson when even Virat Kohli was rattled by the left-arm pacer. Rahane was also very unlucky in his heydays and got jaffs from bowlers to get dismissed in unfortunate manners, and on the day when all were at stake for him and his team, the god returned all those favours as Australians dropped catches, one after another. When Cummins offered him width in the 88th over, he was quick to pounce on it and with that reached a century he and his fans will always rejoice given the plot, the backdrop, and the context of his career coming into this game. Hazlewood followed Cummins in the next over, and bowled a full length delivery to check if he had lost control in the euphoria of completing his 12th century, but he the Rahane was batting in sublime form, and that his sumptuous drive was out to drive the ball through cover for, showed nothing that he is more hungry and yet to be finished in this innings. Rahane answered all his critics and the questions of his place in the Indian team in the most characteristic ways of his batting and in leading his side well for the first two days of the second Test. One can be called a true leader only if they can sail their team and group of subordinates out of a crisis. Fair to say, Rahane has passed on both accounts and if Australian batsmen continue their lackluster frms with the bat, he can also help India earn back the respect and chance to retain the Border Gavaskar series in Melbourne.