Sydney Thunder will play Melbourne Renegades at the Stadium Australia in Sydney in the 12th game of the Big Bash League 2011-12. This match will be played on Friday, December 30.
Thunder (1/1 at
Blue Square) won both their opening games to join Hobart Hurricanes as the only two unbeaten teams in the competition. Hurricanes have now won three in three and the Thunder will look to get to the top of the table by notching their third win in a row as well.
Renegades (1/1 at
Ladbrokes), who are perched at the bottom of the table without a win to their name, will be their opponents for this game. They have played two and lost both the games rather easily and will need a major resurrection.
Dave Warner was Sydney’s captain in their opening encounter and went on to lead them to a win with a superb century. He had to withdraw from the second game because of national duties but Chris Gayle (2/1 at
Stan James) took over from him and went on to score the tournament’s second century. Sydney chased down Strikers’ 156 rather easily.
Luke Doran and Doug Bollinger have done a decent job with the ball for Thunder in the two games.
Renegades haven’t batted and bowled well in the same game. In their opener, they were bowled out for 122 chasing 189 against Adelaide. Then, in their second, they went on to record the tournament’s second-highest score of 188 but bowled very poorly to allow Shaun Marsh (99 not-out) to win it for their team.
There was a 49 from Aaron Finch (7/2 at
Stan James) and a half-century from Andrew McDonald, but likes of Shahid Afridi and Shaun Tait have leaked far too many runs. Dirk Nannes, who had a bad first match, was dropped for the second but he may swap places with Tait in this one.
It may not be such a bad idea to send Abdul Razzaq up the order to either see off an early loss or to smash them after a good start. He can do both roles well and is probably getting wasted down the order.
Sydney Thunder squad
SA Abbott, TJ Armstrong, D Smith*, ND Bills, DE Bollinger, LR Butterworth, SJ Coyte, TD Cruickshank, MR Day, LA Doran, BR Dunk†, FH Edwards, JS Floros, CH Gayle, PJ Hughes, UT Khawaja, CA Philipson
Melbourne Renegades squad
AB McDonald*, Abdul Razzaq, MJ Buchanan, RGL Carters†, AJ Finch, SM Harwood, AK Heal, JM Herrick, MW Hill, BJ Hodge, BG McDonald, GA Manou, GJ Maxwell, DP Nannes, NJ Reardon, Shahid Afridi, WD Sheridan, SW Tait
The Sydney Thunder v Melbourne Renegades Big Bash League 2011-12 game will be played at 8.00 am GMT on Friday, December 30.
