Thanks to a funky BBL12 schedule, the Brisbane Heat will only be forced to wait three days for a chance to seek revenge against the Sydney Thunder who stormed to a 10-wicket win on Monday.
After a poor start to the tournament, a win here will see the Thunder roar back into finals contention, so expect a fantastic contest at Metricon Stadium.
Josh Nevett provides his full match preview and BBL12 betting tips below.
BBL12 Heat vs Thunder Preview & Betting Tips
Metricon Stadium, Thursday 29th December, 6:05pm (AEDT)
Brisbane Heat
Predicted XI: Max Bryant, Colin Munro, Matthew Renshaw, Sam Billings, Jimmy Pierson, Ross Whiteley, Xavier Bartlett, Michael Neser, Mark Steketee, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Kuhnemann
The Brisbane Heat were absolutely humiliated on Monday night, going down by 10 wickets after scoring just 121.
Despite my prediction that the Heat would win due to their superior bowling attack, the batsmen simply didn’t give their bowlers enough to defend, with only Colin Munro (43 off 47), Jimmy Pierson (27 off 24) and Xavier Bartlett (28 off 17) hitting double figures.
It took the Thunder under 12 overs to run down Brisbane’s meager total and relegate the Heat to the bottom of the BBL12 table.
However, all is not lost. The Heat still have a talented squad with a balanced mix of skills, and plenty of X-factor. All it takes is a couple of big individual efforts for Brisbane to get back on the winners list.
Sydney Thunder
Predicted XI: Alex Hales, Matthew Gilkes, Rilee Rossouw, Oliver Davies, Alex Ross, Daniel Sams, Nathan McAndrew, Chris Green, Gurinder Sandhu, Brendan Doggett, Usman Qadir
The Thunder turned their season around with a convincing win over the Heat.
It was a rounded performance – the bowlers did their job to perfection before Alex Hales and Matthew Gilkes both struck half-centuries to make light work of the run chase.
Chris Green (2-14) and Daniel Sams (2-27) both led the way the ball, while son of a gun Usman Qadir (1-19) was excellent on debut.
Monday’s performance set a template for Sydney for future games, and undoubtedly they will take plenty of confidence from it.
The Thunder now sit at 2-3, a base that they can build from as they chase a finals berth.
Match Prediction
I got this one horribly wrong on Monday, so I’m determined to be closer to the mark this time around.
Although it would be hasty and unwise to write off the Heat, I’m starting to lose faith in their batting group which continually fails to fire.
Billings and Bryant have made just one score each, while Pierson has been the Heat’s best performer down in the middle order.
The Thunder hardly have a trustworthy batting group themselves, but the addition of Qadir means they have six genuine bowlers.
I love the newfound balance that the extra spinner gives them, so I’m going for back-to-back Thunder victories.
Sydney Thunder
$1.67 (2 Units)
Same Game Multi
I’m going back to Neser despite his failure to take a wicket on Monday. The master swing bowler has 9 wickets from his last four matches and returns to Queensland conditions for this clash. I doubt he will be held wicketless in consecutive matches.
None of the batsmen have stood up for the Heat so far this tournament. Billings holds the top individual score with a 79, but aside from that, the going has been tough. Conversely, both of Sydney’s openers hit 50. Hales and Rossouw in particular are classy operators, so I can see one of the Thunder batsmen producing a big score.
The Thunder have now strung together two consecutive opening partnerships of over 30 runs. While Gilkes has not contributed much aside from his 50 last time out, I’m backing the Sydney duo to clear 21.
Player to Take 1+ Wickets – Michael Neser
Team of Top Runscorer – Sydney Thunder
Sydney Thunder Fall of Wicket 1 – Over 20.5
