The Perth Scorchers play the Brisbane Heat at the WACA in Perth in their Big Bash League 2011-12 game on Thursday, December 29.
The Scorchers (4/5 at
Stan James) have one win from their two games in the tournament, while Heat have had a poor start to the competition with two successive defeats in the competition so far.
Perth did not have a great start to the competition after bowling Hobart out for 140. They were, in turn, send packing for 109 and lost by 31 runs. They came back strongly in the second game though as they chased down the biggest total of the tournament.
The likes of Nathan Rimmington and Ben Edmondson were taken to the cleaners by the Renegades but Shaun Marsh’s unbeaten 99 ensured that Perth made the required 189 with four balls to spare.
Unfortunately for Perth, Marsh will not be a part of the squad because he is away on national duty and captain Marcus North will need runs from his own blade. Herschelle Gibbs (7/2 at
Stan James) was dropped early in the game but did well to score a half-century and his form will worry the Brisbane side.
The Heat (6/5 at
SportingBet) have batted first and lost and then chased a total and gone down again. It is a surprise that their batting has fallen away despite the presence of the likes of Brendon McCullum (3/1 at
Boylesports) and Daniel Christian.
Chasing 178 for a win against the Stars, the Heats looked like they were in the game at 85/2 in none odd overs but a superb spell from Shane Warne in the middle of the innings bottled them up.
That said, one can expect McCullum to explode in one of these games, while opener Marcus North will look to get into some batting form as well.
Perth will be marginally ahead but one inspired innings from either side could take the game away.
Perth Scorchers squad
MJ North*, TM Beaton, MA Beer, PD Collingwood, NM Coulter-Nile, LM Davis, R Duffield, BM Edmondson, HH Gibbs, GB Hogg, MEK Hussey, SM Katich, MR Marsh, SE Marsh, JM Mennie, LA Pomersbach, NJ Rimmington, L Ronchi†
Brisbane Heat squad
JR Hopes*, RA Broad, ND Buchanan, DT Christian, PJ Forrest, MG Gale, RJ Harris, CD Hartley†, NM Hauritz, ML Hayden, CA Lynn, BB McCullum, AC McDermott, MG Neser, SJ Paulsen, AW Robinson, CR Swan, DL Vettori
The Sydney Thunder v Adelaide Strikers Big Bash League 2011-12 game will be played at 8.00 am GMT on Thursday, December 29.
