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When Brisbane Heat take on Sydney Thunder, the winner of the game will give themselves an outside chance to qualify for the semi-finals but what is clearer is that the losing team will have to pack their bags from the tournament.
We’ll bring you the live scores and commentary of the action throughout the game, with the match starting at 6.30 pm AEDT on January 17.
The two teams in action tomorrow have taken converse paths to get to four points from their six games. While Thunder began the tournament with a couple of wins but tapered away to lose four in a row, Heat failed to win any of their first four games before grabbing two victories in succession.
And the reasons are well chronicled.
Brisbane were obviously hurt by the early absence of Daniel Vettori and the later withdrawal of Brendon McCullum. The return of Vettori, the inclusion of Roelof van der Merwe and Matthew Hayden’s conversion of one of his starts helped the team immensely.
Thunder have often been called a one-man army this season and it isn’t too far from the truth.
Except in their opener, when both Chris Gayle and Dave Warner were a part of the starting 11, the side has had to rely on the Jamaican to get them the runs.
Gayle has a century and a couple of half-centuries to his name but with Usman Khawaja’s 69 runs from six games being the next best in the run-getters’ list, the team is grappling with some serious selection issues.
The two teams are evenly matched in their bowling department.
Sean Abbott and Scott Coyte have done a good job for Thunder while Michael Neser and Alister McDermott have been amongst the wickets for Heat.
Unfortunately for the Thunder, the absence of Doug Bollinger and Fidel Edwards’ inability to run through the batsmen has caused much grief. In contrast, McDermott has done an excellent bowling in the death and made the difference in the last couple of games.
Heat should be favourites here but discounting the Gayle factor would be nothing short of silliness. On paper, the two teams are evenly matched and while neither will be happy with this result, a tie would be most apt for a neutral fan.
We will bring you the coverage throughout the game from the Gabba at 6.30 pm AEDT and hope to receive your opinions as the action unfolds.
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