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Brisbane Heat will look to put their first points on the table when they take on the Hobart Hurricanes in their Big Bash League game on Friday.
We’ll bring you the live scores and commentary of the action throughout the game, with the match starting at 7.30 pm AEDT on January 6.
Such are the vagaries of this format that pre-tournament calculations have gone out the window for the two teams involved in this game.
The Heat were joint favourites at the start of the tournament to lift the trophy but are now almost out of the Big Bash League. The Hurricanes, almost unheralded, have four wins from as many games and barring a miracle of gargantuan proportions, are through to the last-four stage.
Heat opener Matthew Hayden, a former basher for Australia at the top of the innings, has had some starts for the side but his failure to convert them into bigger scores has hurt the side.
So has the absence of his opening partner Brendon McCullum, who is now in New Zealand for their T20 competition.
Hayden may continue attacking the opponents, as seen from his recent interview comment: “I guess the temptation for us is to go into our shells and start licking our wounds and worrying about that. That’s definitely not what I’m going to do. I think we just go out there and play,” but it is the rest of the team which needs to lift their game.
The batsmen have clearly been found out of their depth so far. Hayden’s total of 97 runs in four games is the most scored in the tournament by anyone in his team. That puts him 15th on the overall list of top run-scorers in the Big Bash League this season.
The bowling hasn’t been as incisive as some of the other teams in the tournament. Nathan Hauritz’s five wickets at 19 is the best return in the tournament while most others have conceded more than 7.5 runs per over.
Daniel Christian has been a disappointment with both the bat and the ball. He has scored only 75 runs at less than 19 an innings and scalped four wickets while conceding 31 per dismissal. His economy of 7.68 is also nothing to write home about.
Against a rampaging Hurricanes another such poor show will relegate them to their fifth successive defeat.
Hobart come into the game with a reputation to keep. With not too many big name players in their line-up, not much was expected out of them. Yet four games into the tournament, they are the team to beat.
Naved-ul-Hasan Rana has led the attack with aplomb but credit must be given to captain Xavier Doherty for how he has been used in the tournament as well.
Rana’s 11 wickets in four games is the most in the Big Bash League this season, four more than the next best in the competition. Incidentally in second spot is Doherty with seven scalps.
Travis Birt has continued to show consistency but what has been most impressive is that he has a strike-rate of 160. Phil Jacques missed out in the last game, falling to a brilliant Fidel Edwards yorker for a golden duck, but he has had the results in the previous games.
With Owais Shah having fit well into the role of a finisher (average of 109 with strike-rate of 145), Hobart will go into this game as favourites.
We will bring you the coverage throughout the game from the Gabba in Brisbane from 7.30 pm AEDT and hope to receive your opinions as the action unfolds.
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