The Big Bash League gets its first night off since Christmas tonight, with Round 7 completed last night ahead of the first match of the rejuvenated Tri-Series taking place in Sydney.
The final BBL round will be intertwined with the ODIs over the next six days.
With Perth and Adelaide – or Adelaide and Perth, however the table reads now – already confirmed for the semi-finals, we still have three teams battling it out for the last two spots in the semis.
Hobart’s loss last night in Brisbane to the Heat in their final match of the season knocked them out of the finals race. Brisbane and the Sydney Thunder also won’t qualify for the playoffs.
But will the Australian selections become a deciding factor for those teams still in the hunt?
Which teams will best cope with the World Cup selections?
Let me be very clear on something here: of course World Cup and Tri-Series ODI selections take precedent over the BBL, and only the ridiculously parochial would suggest otherwise.
What I’m wondering is which of the BBL teams already locked in the for the semis, and the teams still eyeing off a semi spot, are actually best equipped to handle the loss of their national reps.
Currently third on the table, the Sydney Sixers technically had four players picked in the Australian side, but Mitchell Starc is the only player they will miss. And even though Starc has been one of the better Sixers bowlers in terms of average, economy, and strike rate, he has only played the two games this season.
Furthermore, the Sixers actually gained Nathan Lyon for the remaining games of their campaign as a resulting of his somewhat bewildering omission from the World Cup Squad. Lyon took 1-28 against Adelaide on Wednesday night, and fitted pretty well into the Sixers attack of Brett Lee, Doug Bollinger, Sean Abbott, Moises Henriques and Steve O’Keefe.
The Sixers’ bowling is largely unaffected by Australian selections, but then again it’s not their bowling that’s been letting them down this season.
The Melbourne Stars – or Melbourne Green for the Dan Liebkes of the world – sit fourth, and they’re the team I’m a little worried about. Though they remain well stocked with… well, stars, the two they’ve lost are probably the hardest to replace.
He’d been finding unusual ways of getting himself out, but Glenn Maxwell was still striking at 144, as well as chipping in for a couple of wickets. But Maxwell’s century in Canberra on Wednesday night for the PM’s XI side was a real confidence-boosting knock, and not even Kevin Pietersen or Cameron White at their best can ‘go’ like Maxwell can.
Then there’s James Faulkner, and though he has been a touch on the expensive side, his eight wickets have come every 12.5 balls, which only big John Hastings can top for the Stars, and which sits in the top handful of players in the comp to have played most games.
The Stars have been a bit up and down this summer, and taking out two quality players of the calibre of Maxwell and Faulkner is going to hurt. The saving grace for the Stars is the fact they have two games to come in Round 8.
The Renegades – that’s Melbourne Red, Dan – only lose Aaron Finch, and with his struggles, coupled with the way Ben Stokes has been braining them since he landed, it’s arguable if they’ll miss Finch’s current form at all.
Scores of 20, 15, 48, 8, 5, and 12 and a strike rate of 109 haven’t exactly been putting the fear of god into bowlers this BBL and I actually think Finch’s spot in the Australian side is under some pressure.
They have to win on Monday night, first and foremost, but the Renegades will also need other results to fall very favourably for them to sneak into fourth spot. And if they can pull that off without Aaron Finch, then it would give them a real lift should they make the playoffs.
Best. Finish. Ever.
I know it was a week ago, but the finish in the Melbourne derby at the MCG is worth revisiting.
The Stars looked to be doing it easy chasing 154, and Pietersen and Maxwell’s record third-wicket partnership had them cruising and needing just 20 to win from 33 balls and seven wickets in hand. And then they fell in a massive heap, losing 4-9 in 10 balls and needing one from the last ball.
Initially, Nathan Rimmington aborted his first attempt mid run-up, just adding to the already thick tension.
Then busy keeper-batsman Tom Triffitt nudged the eventual delivery to the on-side and bolted, Callum Ferguson fielded it and flicked to Rimmington, who’d got back to the stumps. In all the excitement, with both Ferguson and Triffitt diving toward the stumps to field the ball and make his ground, respectively, the bails were dislodged and it looked for all intents and purposes like we were heading for only the third ever BBL Super Over.
However, after a good couple of minutes of replays, and replays of replays, it became evident that Rimmington actually broke the stumps with his arm, and the run stood. The Stars won by a run, and it was a thousand times more thrilling a finish than either of the two Super Overs have been to date.
Round 8
Tomorrow: Sydney Thunder v Melbourne Stars, Sydney Showground; 7:10pm local time
Monday: Melbourne Renegades v Adelaide Strikers, Docklands, Melbourne; 7:10pm local time
Wednesday: Melbourne Stars v Perth Scorchers, MCG; 7:10pm local time
Thursday: Sydney Sixers v Sydney Thunder, SCG; 7:10pm local time
Tips/best guesses
Melbourne Stars
Adelaide Strikers
Perth Scorchers
Sydney Sixers
The mammoth rise of Jake Fraser-McGurk - his enormous potential and the destructive shot-making that he possesses makes him a very tempting option.
Marcus Stoinis produced his first IPL century and it was a beauty. He went 6, 4, 4, 4 to finish off the Lucknow Super…
Xavier Bartlett has been permission to extend his cricketing education with a spell of T20s in England, playing in the Blast competition for Kent…
Three-Test spinner Matthew Kuhnemann has signed with Tasmania in a bid for red-ball game time ahead of Australia's tour of Sri Lanka next summer.…
Last week, you read about the Matt XI, a compilation of the best cricketers ever to represent the name Matt. And to be fair,…
The Aussie needed every centimetre of his height and reach to reel that one in!
