BBL 7, Match 37: Melbourne Renegades vs Sydney Thunder – Match Predictions

Manuka Oval will be hosting tomorrow’s Big Bash League (BBL) encounter between Sydney Thunder and Melbourne Renegades and it should be a cracker of a contest with a potentially sale-out crowd in the Australian capital. The game has a lot of significance attached to it in terms of the knockouts qualification as both the teams need to secure a victory to strengthen their chances of registering a berth in the top 4.

The Thunder and the Renegades have not gone head to head against each other so far this season. This is going to be their first face off. Both the teams have had a mixed bag in the tournament. While they have played some brilliant cricket on certain days, they have been lethargic as well on certain other days and that’s why they are hovering mid-way through the table at this stage.

Pitch Report

While there hasn’t been any BBL game played at the Manuka Oval this season, traditionally it’s a good batting wicket and with the straight and the square boundaries not so big, the par score will be around 170-180. Also because the wicket tends to be quite flat and remains the same throughout the 40 overs of the game, both the sides will prefer chasing. So it’s likely that the team winning the toss will opt to bowl.

Melbourne Renegades

The Renegades had Cameron White available for them for the last game as the veteran returned just a day after representing Australia in an ODI game against England and featured for the Reds, however, he has departed to join the Kangaroo squad again and in his absence, Brad Hodge will be leading the side. Also, the like-for-like replacement for White in the XI will be Matthew Short. That’s the only likely change in the XI of the Renegades.

Predicted XI: Brad Hodge (C), Dwayne Bravo, Tom Cooper, Brad Hogg, Tim Ludeman, Kieron Pollard, Kane Richardson, Matthew Short, Chris Tremain, Jack Wildermuth, Beau Webster

Sydney Thunder

The Thunder would have probably gone with the same XI they had opted for in the previous game, but they will have to make a couple of forced changes now as a couple of their experienced players Usman Khawaja and Callum Ferguson have got injured.

While Ferguson’s spot will be taken by an equally experienced Ed Cowan, Khawaja’s spot in the squad will go to Aiden Blizzard. Khawaja is a bigger blow because he has been in fluent form and has been hitting the ball well. He could have made a difference with the bat at the top of the order.

Predicted XI: Shane Watson (C), Fawad Ahmed, Aiden Blizzard, Ed Cowan, Andrew Fekete, Chris Green, Mitch McLenaghan, Kurtis Patterson, Arjun Nair, James Vince, Gurinder Sandhu

Here’s what we, at CricTracker predict for the game:

Head to Head Record

Total Matches Played – 6 | Melbourne Renegades won – 5 | Sydney Thunder won – 1 | No Result/Tie – 0

Probable Top Performers

Brad Hodge (Melbourne Renegades) | Chris Green (Sydney Thunder)

Timings of the match

The game will start at-

2:10 PM IST/ 08:40 AM GMT/ 07:40 PM local

Broadcast Details

TV – SonyESPN

Online – SonyLIV

The prediction is for the Melbourne Renegades to win the match.