The BBL11 season is in danger of spluttering towards the finish line under the weight of Covid management but the show must go on, at least for now, with the Perth Scorchers hosting the Sydney Sixers at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast on Tuesday night. The action kicks off at 8:15pm AEDT (7:15pm local time). Check out our preview and BBL11 betting tips below!
The game was originally slated to be the Heat vs Sixers, but COVID had other plans, and has forced an 11th hour switch of teams as the Scorchers will now 'host' the game form Metricon.
BBL11 Scorchers vs Sixers Preview & Betting Tips
Metricon Stadium, Tuesday 8:15pm AEDT
Perth Scorchers
Predicted XI: Cameron Bancroft, Kurtis Patterson, Colin Munro, Laurie Evans, Aaron Hardie, Ashton Turner, Ashton Agar, Andrew Tye, Jason Behrendorff, Peter Hatzoglou, Tymal Mills
The Scorchers are coming off a comfortable win over an undermanned Stars outfit on Sunday night. They will still be without Mitch Marsh and Josh Inglis for the clash, as both are remaining with the Australian Test team as cover for last minute COVID scares.
I think it's likely that the Scorchers go with the same XI that defeated the Stars on Sunday night, which seems to be a solid mix with three frontline pacemen and two spinners in Hatzoglou and Agar. A fifth bowler wasn't needed on Sunday night but Aaron Hardie is more than capable in a pinch.
Sydney Sixers
Likely XI: Josh Philippe, James Vince, Moises Henriques, Daniel Hughes, Jordan Silk, Dan Christian, Sean Abbott, Shadab Khan, Ben Dwarshius, Jackson Bird, Steve O'Keefe
The Sixers have enjoyed a quiet New Year’s after their trip to Coffs Harbour resulted in a wash out against the Renegades.
It’s been a very solid BBL11 season so far for the defending champions with only one blemish against the Hurricanes earlier in the season. They’ve named an unchanged 16-man squad and with the likes of Jackson Bird and Steve O’Keefe recently returning from injury, they look very solid on paper. Expect that they might look to get both of those players back into the XI for this match.
However the Sixers might be a little gun shy after only scraping past the Heat when these two teams met on December 29th. The Heat were rolled for 105 on the back of four wickets from Sean Abbott and looked in a world of trouble at 7-35 before Abbott again saved the day with a match-winning innings.
The Sixers can’t rely on Sean Abbott to do it all, and generally they don’t. Let’s call that match an outlier as normally the likes of Josh Philippe, James Vince, Moises Henriques or Dan Christian have influence on the game. The Sixers have multiple match winners and now have the bowling depth to cover all angles. They will be hard to stop here.
Match Prediction
The last minute change of fixture will surely have an affect on the Perth Scorchers here. Sydney's preparation for the game will be largely uninteruppted, but there's a high chance that a few Scorchers players here will be underdone given the fact they thought they had a few extra days to prepare for their next game. They will have only arrived in Queensland on Monday or Tuesday, and with Marsh and Inglis both still out, the scales tip even further in the Sixers favour.
GAME CURRENTLY HAS NO ODDS, WE WILL UPDATE AS SOON AS MARKETS COME OUT
Same Game Multi
According to our BBL11 Data Tools, the Sixers have one of the most consistent top orders in the Big Bash League. Josh Philippe, James Vince and Moises Henriques rarely let you down, and we’ll back them in our Same Game Multi at Sportsbet.
Josh Philippe (68%), James Vince (80%) and Moises Henriques (74%) are all strong chances to reach 10+ runs and we’ll combine that with the Sixers to have the highest opening partnership of the match.
Josh Philippe 10+ runs
James Vince 10+ runs
Moises Henriques 10+ runs
GAME CURRENTLY HAS NO ODDS, WE WILL UPDATE AS SOON AS MARKETS COME OUT