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It’s the Melbourne Stars who take on the Hobart Hurricanes in this final Round 7 game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the Big Bash League 2013-14 on Tuesday and you can follow the scores live from 7.40 pm AEDT.
This contest is one expected to thrill and I don’t say it lightly.
The Stars have quite clearly been one of the better teams in the contest, because they have highly effective T20 batsmen and some excellent bowlers in their line-up.
What’s more, they have been highly functional in the tournament so far, unlike some of the paper-performers in other sides.
True they will lose Glenn Maxwell and James Faulkner for this one like they did in the last game, but they were others who can easily step up the plate with much ease.
Six wins in six games bear ample testimony to that as it does to the fact that they are already through to the semi-finals and won’t be under any pressure. As a result, I expect a carefree brand of cricket from them in this encounter.
At the other end of the spectrum is a team which is struggling to make the semi-finals. The Hurricanes are one of the three teams remaining in the competition, still with a chance to enter the last-four stage of the competition, and currently have five points from six games.
Contrary to popular belief, the Hurricanes are not in a must-win situation. They have a couple of games remaining, including this one, and a defeat here will not be enough to knock them out of reckoning.
Conversely, even if they win this one, they will not be guaranteed a place in the semi-finals, with both those eventualities dependent on their next game against the defending champions Brisbane Heat.
And yet, it could well be about momentum and getting things right for the Hurricanes.
They did not start well against the Strikers in their opening game and were lucky to escape with a point after it got rained off. Since then they have won only two matches, one of which came against the Sydney Thunder, who only recently ended their 19-match losing streak.
There were a few positives that came out of their defeat to the mighty Sixers in the last game though.
For one, captain Tim Paine showed signs of getting the hang of in the competition, scoring a half-century after four prior failures.
Ben Hilfenhaus, who had started poorly in the competition as well, was the most economical among all bowlers in the game.
And then there were the usual suspects, Ben Dunk and Travis Birt, who propped up the side with 30s of their own.
There’s more good news coming their way now, with Dimitri Mascarenhas joining the squad after having suffered an injury earlier in the competition. He will be playing his first game in the competition, and it comes at a time when they are in a desperate need of a couple of wins.
Join us for the Stars v Hurricanes match in the Big Bash League 2013-14 on Saturday and you can follow the live score of this game from 7.40 pm AEDT and post your comments below.
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