The BBL14 season continues on Friday night as the Sydney Sixers take on the Brisbane Heat in the first game of a double header from 6.05pm. Check out our preview and betting tips for the clash below.
BBL14 Sixers vs Heat Betting Tips
C.ex Coffs International Stadium, Friday 3rd January, 6.05pm (AEDT)
Sixers
The Sixers suffered their first loss of the season on Wednesday afternoon as they went down to the Hurricanes on the road by 50 runs. Bowling first, they kept Hobart to a manageable today of 6/161 off their 20 overs, led by another strong bowling performance from Jackson Bird, who took 4/16 off four overs.
The Sixers couldn’t back up the performance with the bat, however, as they failed for the first time this year, being bowled out in 19.3 overs for just 111. Skipper Moises Henruiques was the top scorer with 22. Overall, I’m not too concerned about the Sixers batting after one slight hiccup. With Sean Abbott likely still unavailable due to Test squad duties, I think the team remains unchanged here.
Predicted XI: James Vince, Josh Philippe, Kurtis Patterson, Moises Henriques, Jordan Silk, Jack Edwards, Hayden Kerr, Ben Dwarshuis, Akeal Hosein, Todd Murphy, Jackson Bird
Heat
As we predicted, the Stars claimed an upset win in Brisbane on Wednesday night to hand the Heat their third straight loss of the season. With the loss, they fell to sixth on the BBL table and will desperately need to bounce back soon if they have any ambition of defending their BBL title.
The Heat batting line-up looks very fragile at the moment, with star imports Tom Banton and Colin Munro yet to fire at the top of the order and hard hitting middle order players in Matt Renshaw and Max Bryant unreliable at the best of times. Their bowling and batting should be improved on Thursday night with the inclusion of Michael Neser, who is likely to return from a hamstring injury.
Predicted XI: Tom Banton, Colin Munro, Nathan McSweeney, Matt Renshaw, Max Bryant, Paul Walter, Michael Neser, Xavier Bartlett, Spencer Johnson, Mitch Swepson, Matt Kuhnemann
Prediction
The Heat are terribly out of form at the moment but I think the inclusion of Michael Neser is a huge one here. They have really been one bowler and one batsman short for the last few games and I think he fills both of those voids perfectly slotting in at No.7.
Banton and Munro have also seen enough cricket this season that you’d think a big score for one of them is on the way here. Most of all I’m putting this game down to a case of ‘hungry dog runs faster’. The Sixers are sitting pretty on top of the table at the moment while the Heat are all but playing for their season. At what will be a relatively neutral ground in Coffs Harbour, I like the Heat to win here.
Player Prop
Despite blasting a brilliant hundred earlier in the season to lead the Sixers to victory over the Stars, James Vince hasn’t really put much else together with scores of 10, 13, 40 and 11 in his other four games.
Averages 28.9 in 10 career games against the Brisbane Heat but his record at Coffs Harbour is less appealing, averaging just 11.0 across three games. Take his unders here, which already sits a little high at 24.5.
Vince Under 24.5 Runs
$1.90
