Melbourne Stars vs Perth Scorchers: Big Bash League cricket live scores, blog

The Perth Scorchers will look to erase a poor performance at home against the Melbourne Stars a few days ago when they take on the BBL favourites at the MCG. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 3:40pm (AEDT).

Melbourne will look to dish out similar punishment to a Perth line-up they humbled at Optus Stadium on Wednesday evening. Led by terrific performances from Jackson Coleman, Sandeep Lamichhane and Haris Rauf, the Stars bowled the Scorchers out for less than 90 runs en route to a crushing eight-wicket victory with seven overs to spare.

To be fair, Perth have had a difficult time of it on the road. The team was affected by a major delay in Melbourne and had less than 24 hours to prepare for the match against the Stars back home. Now they are on the road again, heading back to Melbourne to face the very team that destroyed them days earlier.

The Scorchers should be favoured to put up more resistance in a bid to erase such a heavy defeat. The bounce-back factor should be considered this afternoon even if Melbourne start overwhelming favourites.

The only bright spots for Perth a few days ago were the performances of Josh Inglis and Jhye Richardson. Inglis is the man of the moment with the bat for Perth while Richardson has been bowling superbly, getting great swing and pace on his deliveries.

If these two shining lights for Perth manage to fire today, perhaps the Scorchers are a chance of challenging the Stars away from home.

Melbourne, meanwhile, continue to firm heavily as BBL09 favourites. They are dispatching most teams ruthlessly with Marcus Stoinis leading the way with the bat.

Throw in the reliable performances from Daniel Worrall, Lamichhane and Coleman with the ball and the Stars are well balanced and disciplined enough to record another win today.

Prediction
Melbourne are as blue chip as you are going to get in the BBL. Their consistency is unrivalled. While I expect Perth to respond after Wednesday’s hammering, the Stars’ winning form should continue at home.

Stars to win.

Game information

Time: 3:40pm (AEDT)
Venue: MCG
Coverage: Kayo Sports, Fox Cricket
Betting: Stars $1.56, Scorchers $2.45

Perth Scorchers squad
Mitchell Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Fawad Ahmed, Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Nick Hobson, Josh Inglis, Chris Jordan, Matthew Kelly, Liam Livingstone, Joel Paris, Kurtis Patterson, Jhye Richardson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Sam Whiteman

Melbourne Stars squad
Hilton Cartwright, Jackson Coleman, Ben Dunk, Seb Gotch, Clint Hinchliffe, Sandeep Lamichhane, Nick Larkin, Glenn Maxwell (c), Jonathan Merlo, Haris Rauf, Marcus Stoinis, Daniel Worrall