The Melbourne Stars and Perth Scorchers will face off at the MCG on Friday night in the second semi-final of the Big Bash.
This fixture sees the perennial powerhouses of the Big Bash travel to face the competition’s underachievers. The Scorchers have made every one of the four Big Bash Finals to date, whereas the Stars have bowed out in the semis each year. Three of those semi-final losses have come at the hands of Perth.
Missing troops
Both sides are without some their big-name players, but it’s undoubtedly the Stars who have suffered most at the hands of international selection.
The Melbourne side will be without their three best death bowlers – James Faulkner, Scott Boland and John Hastings – as well as Glenn Maxwell. Replacing the overs of the three aforementioned bowlers and the runs that Faulkner and Maxwell offer is a tough ask. When one also considers the big-match experience of the two allrounders, the blow is a massive one for the Stars.
The Scorchers are hardly unscathed though. Shaun Marsh has been brilliant in his five matches for Perth this season, scoring 218 runs. However he will be lost to 12th man duty for Australia, and brother Mitchell is also in the ODI squad.
The Scorchers have coped reasonably well without the pair – Mitchell has only played the one game this season – but they’d love to have their class to call on during the pointy end of the season. Shaun has been the side’s top-scorer in the last two Finals, and Mitchell topped the scorecard in the BBL|01 Final. The Scorchers will now need someone else to step up to the plate.
| Semi-finals between the Stars and the Scorchers | ||
| Year | Ground | Result |
| 2012 | WACA | Scorchers by 11 runs |
| 2013 | WACA | Scorchers by 8 wickets (D/L method) |
| 2015 | WACA | Scorchers by 18 runs |
| 2016 | MCG | ??? |
Filling the void
In the absence of the Marsh brothers, Michael Klinger and Adam Voges loom as the key batsmen for Perth. Although Voges’ output for the Scorchers this season has been limited by his role in the Australian Test side, he has been a handy contributor for the Scorchers, scoring 93 runs in three innings with just one dismissal.
Klinger has been the rock at the top of the order for Perth. The skipper has led from the front with a team-high 241 runs for the season, and his partnership with Shaun Marsh against the Renegades, one which led to the first-ever 10-wicket win in the Big Bash, was nothing short of brilliant. If he bats well, it’s hard to see Perth falling short.
Without many of their best bowlers, the Stars have had a welcome surprise in the form of Daniel Worrall. Despite an angled run-up that wouldn’t look out of place four decades ago, Worrall has shown himself an adept Twenty20 bowler, taking four wickets in his two games this Big Bash and conceding less than eight runs an over.
Just last Saturday Worrall tore through the Scorchers with three wickets, including Klinger for a duck. The Stars will be hoping for a repeat performance on the big stage.
Outstanding teamwork meets individual brilliance
This game is likely to come down to the battle between the well-oiled bowling unit of the Scorchers and big-name batsmen of the Stars.
Although Melbourne scored a convincing win in last Saturday’s matchup between the two sides, it came against a Scorchers team missing two key bowlers: Jason Behrendorf and Joel Paris. Both are set to return for the semi-final.
Behrendorff has been struggling with a stress fracture in his back, but is likely to play the remainder of the Big Bash before a four-month stint on the sidelines to manage the injury, while Paris returns from Australian duty. With AJ Tye, David Willey and Brad Hogg rounding out the attack, scoring won’t be easy for the Stars.
The role of the Melbourne side’s experienced batsmen will be critical in nullifying the Scorchers’ bowlers. Kevin Pietersen has been a bit hot-and-cold so far this tournament, but on his day he is indomitable.
The same can be said of fellow Englishman Luke Wright. A slow start to the tournament quickly gave way to a run of good scores, including a match-winning hundred against the Renegades in front of a packed MCG.
The output of these two batsmen could well decide the game. If Perth’s bowlers get on top early with an early wicket or two, scoring will become an afterthought to survival. But both Wright and Pietersen have the ability and confidence to show the rest of the Stars this attack can be scored against.
Kevin Pietersen made only eight in the last meeting between the two sides. Can he produce a match-winning effort this time around? (Image: AAP)
Prediction
The 52-run win over the Scorchers will give the Stars plenty of confidence and momentum going into this semi-final, as well as home-ground advantage.
But it’s hard to read too much into the result itself; Perth were without both of their opening bowlers and had an uncharacteristically bad night with the bat. Both bowlers should be back, and it’s hard to see a repeat performance from the Scorchers’ batsmen.
That being said, the Stars hardly put in a dominant display with the bat themselves. Their bowling was excellent no doubt, but they got just 36 runs from Pietersen, Wright, Marcus Stoinis and Peter Handscomb combined. Who’s to say at least one of them won’t reverse their form for this match, even if it will be against a much stronger bowling lineup?
The nature of semi-finals makes them notoriously difficult to predict. But the saying in cricket goes that bowlers win matches, whereas batsman merely set them up. With that and their flawless record in Big Bash semi-finals to date in mind, it’s hard to go past the Scorchers.
Perth Scorchers to make their fifth-straight final.
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