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It’s the fight for the second spot in the Big Bash League as the Perth Scorchers travel to the SCG to take on the Sydney Sixers in the 20th game of the competition and you can follow the scores live from 7.40pm AEDT.
It’s coming to that stage of the tournament, where teams would be giving more than a glance at the points table before every game.
Barring the Melbourne Stars, who have all but cemented their place in the last-four stage of the competition, the fight for the remaining three slots in the knock-out round is alive and kicking.
The Sixers and the Scorchers have a decent shot at making it to that stage.
Both teams are currently on six points, with the Scorchers having a better net run-rate while the Sixers have a game in hand.
More vitally, all but one team behind them on the table have a decent chance of leap-frogging them by the time the league stage is completed, making this a game of much importance.
The Sixers have won all but one of their games, with their sole loss being an acceptable one to the Stars, given the team from Melbourne has gone about crushing every other side.
On the other hand, the Scorchers won only one of their first three matches but since then have notched up two victories in a row, thanks mainly to their strong bowling attack.
Their last match was an interesting one. The Scorchers seemed to have run themselves out of contention with four run-outs in their innings against the Hurricanes but Nathan Coulter-Nile and Yasir Arafat shared five wickets between them, conceded only 42 runs and ran home winners.
Unfortunately for the Scorchers, they will be without two of their key players for this one, Coulter-Nile and Shaun Marsh, both lost to national duties.
If Alfonso Thomas is fit enough, and one would like to believe he is after being named in the 13, he will take up Coulter-Nile’s place in the 11. Either Hilton Cartwright or Ryan Duffield may replace Marsh.
What makes things worse for the Scorchers is while they have had to consolidate their resources after losing a couple to the Australian ODI squad, the Sixers have been propped up by a few returns.
Steven Smith returns to take over the captaincy of the side, while there is place in the squad for Nathan Lyon as well, although it remains to be seen whether he will get the nod over Steve O’Keefe.
The other option is to play them both in the line-up, which may not be such a left-field idea given how economically the slow bowlers have bowled this season.
And while Ravi Bopara will be lost to the English ODI squad taking on Australia in the first of five ODIs on Sunday, another Englishman, Chris Tremlett joins the 13-man squad.
The Scorchers have often been an under-rated team in the competition and surprised a couple of their opponents with their strong bowling.
However, with the loss of Coulter-Nile and Marsh stretching their resources, this seems to be a test of their depth they may find difficult to fill.
Join us for the Sixers-Scorchers tonight, and follow live scores and commentary of this game from 7.40pm AEDT and post your comments below.
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