BBL 7, Match 25, Preview: Top heavy Thunder awaits the Scorchers challenge

The Perth Scorchers have been one of the most dominant teams in the 7th edition of the Big Bash League (BBL) and they will look to go top of the table tomorrow as they take on the Sydney Thunder at the Sydney Showground Stadium. While the Thunder are coming off a loss at the hands of the Adelaide Strikers, the Scorchers had an emphatic win against the Melbourne Renegades in their last game.

What stood out for the Scorchers in the Renegades game was the fact that their batsmen got the job done when the bowlers failed. So far in the tournament, the bowlers had been guiding the ship for the defending champions, but for once the bowling was taken apart and the batsmen stepped up to the plate to make the mockery of what seemed to be quite a stiff chase.

And it was not as if the Renegades bowling attack was an average one. They had some of the world’s best T20 bowlers on display in the form of Mohammad Nabi, Dwayne Bravo and Brad Hogg, but the Scorchers still managed to get over the line courtesy some outstanding hitting by Ashton Turner and the English all-rounder David Willey who has been opening the innings for the Scorchers in this tournament.

Talking about Thunder, they have problems aplenty and problems in all departments of the game. While their bowling doesn’t look penetrating enough with the busty Kiwi quick Mitchell McLenaghan going through a lean patch, they lack that striking ability in batting too. They have one-dimensional players batting through the middle order who don’t have the ideal game for the T20 format.

The Thunder desperately need some power in the latter stages of the innings to get that big finish with the bat. However, they don’t have any prominent finisher sitting on the sidelines who can solve the issue for them, so they will have to shuffle within the current XI and have to make a few changes in the batting positions. It will probably be ideal if the skipper Shane Watson pushes himself down to 5 or 6 as it will provide the right kind of balance to the batting order which at the moment seems to be top heavy.

Toss: Sydney Thunder won the toss and opted to bat

Perth Scorchers (Playing XI): Michael Klinger, William Bosisto, Cameron Bancroft(w), Hilton Cartwright, Ashton Turner, Adam Voges(c), Ashton Agar, Tim Bresnan, Matthew Kelly, Mitchell Johnson, Joel Paris

Sydney Thunder (Playing XI): Usman Khawaja, Kurtis Patterson, Shane Watson(c), Callum Ferguson, Ben Rohrer, Arjun Nair, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jay Lenton(w), Fawad Ahmed, Chris Green, Gurinder Sandhu