The Big Bash League continues on Saturday with the bottom-placed Hobart Hurricanes and Sydney Thunder slugging it out in the first of two games in the day and you can follow the scores live from 1.45 pm AEDT.
While the two teams involved in this contest are placed seventh and eighth in the points table, there is a distinct difference in the potential fortunes of the two sides.
On the one hand, Sydney has lost all of their first five games and has created a record for the second-most successive defeats in this format of the game, over a span of three seasons.
They can win all three remaining matches and will still not qualify for the knock-out stage but the dire circumstances they find themselves in, it will be difficult to expect them to win one or two, let alone three.
The other side is only marginally better in terms of wins – the Hurricanes have won only one – but they have three points from four games. What this means is that even if they win three of their remaining four matches, they will have a very good chance of making it to the semi-finals.
Their problem is that every team has beaten Thunder in the competition and a defeat here at the hands of the Sydney side will not only make semi-final qualification difficult, but could also shatter their morale to bits.
As it is, the Hurricanes enter this game knowing they should have won the previous game.
After suffering a 51-run pummelling at the hands of the Renegades, they seemed to have done well to first restrict the Scorchers to 153 in their 20 overs and then get to within 21 runs of winning the game with three overs remaining and two set batsmen at the crease.
Shoaib Malik, one of those men, then seemed to decide he wanted to finish it off in a matter of a few blows. An attempted slog was missed before he tried it again and was caught. His partner Owais Shah fell early next over and the side capitulated to a six-run defeat.
The Hurricanes have made one change to that side, with Xavier Doherty joining the Australian national side for the ODI series and Cameron Boyce taking his place in the squad.
The Thunder came up with their worst performance of the tournament in the previous game when they went down to the Brisbane Heat by 48 runs, despite having had their opposition by their throat at 3/43 in the eighth over.
Ajantha Mendis went for 41 in his four, while Chris Tremain conceded 53 in his spell to undo all the good work from Jason Floros and Dirk Nannes. What needs to be seen is if the Thunder will change anything around to add more bowling firepower for this one.
Michael Hussey continues to remain the sole, consistent run-scorer for the Thunder, while T Dilshan will miss this game as well because of injury. Likes of Usman Khawaja, Daniel Hughes and Kurtis Patterson need to do some scoring at the top.
Join us for the Hurricanes v Thunder match in the Big Bash League 2013-14 on Saturday and you can follow the live score of this game from 1.45 pm AEDT and post your comments below.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Thunder have been crushed, yet again. It's going worse for them. Four close matches they lost to start things off but that's been followed by two crushing losses. Six defeats in a row for them, 19 successive ones over the three seasons and that makes them the not-so-proud holders of the record for the second-most number of consecutive defeats in T20 history. The Hurricanes have jumped up to five points from five matches, which pushes them to the number four in the table. There's another game today, in about 150 minutes from now and I will be back to cover it live, hoping for it to be a lot closer one than this.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
And that's that, game over, the Hurricanes have won. Boyce gets his third as Sandhu has top-edged one to backward point. Was looking jump down and slog it over mid-wicket but it's a wrong 'un that's not picked up and easily caught. Sydney Thunder bowled out for 94.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Wow, Mendis has taken about 15 seconds to get into the position to reverse sweep Boyce and when he finally does that, he hits it well, and over to deep point for a four. But off the next one, he holes out, looking to slog but only top-edging to the extra-cover fielder. Was a quicker, seam-up type of a delivery from the leggie. 9/94 in the 17th
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
And here goes another, this to Laughlin. Carters was looking to move away to the off side and thwack it over square-leg who was inside the circle. But he manages to hit it only to deep mid-wicket and that's wicket number eight down. 8/89 in the 16th
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Ben Laughlin will take up the attack for the 16th. Ajantha Mendis and Ryan Carters at the crease.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
The Thunder are 7/87 at this stage. 81 needed from 30.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Shorter in length and Tye was attempting an across the line hoick again, bit of a sweep probably but did not make for pleasant viewing that. Does not get too much of a bat there and it goes straight to the fielder. Seven down. 86 on the board.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Jumps out and six! Finally something for the Thunder, Tye has mowed has over wide long-on for a maximum! Boyce fires one through next ball, probably 15 km/hr quicker! Too little too late?
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Another good over from Malik means he ends his spell with figures of 2/19 in 4. That's excellent stuff from him. 6/79 in 14. Boyce will continue.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
And gone, Malik has his second and Patterson is gone, stumped! He was looking to go down the pitch and Malik saw that early. He slows it down drastically and beats him for pace. Patterson was trying to shimmy down and swing his bat but it sneaks through to the keeper and gone, stumped. 6/75 in 13.3
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Six in the Hilfenhaus over. Thunder on 5/72 in 13. 96 needed from 7.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
After that ripper of a game last night, this has turned out to be a big disappointing. Kurtis Patterson has been joined by Ryan Carters. 5/68 in the 13th
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Gone, there was always a run-out in this innings and here's one, finally! Both were at the same end there, Floros and Patterson and one of them is out! The umpires will need to decide on who, because there were many cross-overs. Tapped to the off side for a single and Patterson wanted the second, he went back for it but Floros never responded till the very end. By the time he came through, it was too late, and Floros is gone. 5/66 in 12.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Boyce is continuing from the other end. Incidentally, that was Laughlin who took the previous wicket, his second. He has figures of 2/6 in 2 and Blizzard, on the microphone, says, he has 15 different variations he loves bowling every ball. In the meantime, Bollinger has dropped a sitter here. Swept away to the deep square-leg region and straight in and out of his hand! That's as easy as the Jason Floros chance earlier. Interestingly, Floros was the batsman here! 4/60 in 11.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Many attempted run-outs later, Khawaja has finally decided he wants to get out, caught. He has chipped it inside out but not too much pace on that shot and it's hit straight to the deep cover fielder. Gone for 28 from 30. 4/50 in the 10th
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
An excellent over from Boyce first up that goes for just four singles. 3/49 in 9. 119 needed from 11.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Cameron Boyce comes on in now. Leg-spinner and the batsmen need to score a few here. No point hanging in waiting... ...3/45 in the 9th
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Thunder coach Chandika Hathurasinghe says the side conceded 15 more than they should have. The Hurricanes looked like they could have gotten 30 more than what they got, in fact! Khawaja's just pulled one to the fence here... 3/44 in the 8th
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Dismal showing this from Thunder, last 14 shots from them have all been singles. The rate's down to five an over and they need 10 an over from here on.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
And another run-out chance! Khawaja's got some serious decision problems while running between the wickets. Floros at five, gets off the mark with a single to fine-leg. 3/34 in the 7th