The Melbourne Stars will look to get back to winning ways against the Perth Scorchers on Wednesday. The game will be played at the MCG and is a D/N affair.
Game 7 of the Big Bash League 2023 will take place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground as Melbourne Stars and Perth Scorchers face off on Wednesday evening. The Stars lost their opening game of the tournament by 103 runs to Brisbane Heat, with the Perth Scorchers opening their opener and the Melbourne Renegades being surrendered after 6.5 overs. The game starts at 7:15 p.m. local time.
The Melbourne Stars finished bottom of the table last year and a defeat by over 100 runs in the first game of this season will not give the team much confidence. With Glenn Maxwell back at the physio table, beating the Perth Scorchers will be a tough task.
The Perth Scorchers will be pleased to leave Geelong injury-free after their pitch problems. However, their bowlers will have enjoyed an evening away from bowling so they should be very fresh ahead of this clash.
Match Preview
The Melbourne Stars will face the Perth Scorchers in the seventh game of the 2023-24 BBL at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday (December 13). It is the second game of the season for both teams and they are aiming for a different result than the first game.
Stars faced Brisbane Heat in their first game and elected to bowl after winning the toss. Colin Munro remained unbeaten on 99 runs off 61 deliveries and missed his second BBL century. He helped the Heat to a total of 214 runs and the loss of three wickets. Joel Paris, Glenn Maxwell and Nathan Coulter-Nile took one wicket each. Only three batters managed to reach double figures for the Stars and Hilton Cartwright was the top scorer with 33 runs and 16 deliveries. The Stars scored 111 runs in 15.1 overs and lost the match by 103 runs.
The Scorchers' last game against Melbourne Renegades was canceled due to pitch conditions. The Renegades won the toss and elected to bowl here. The Scorchers managed to score 30 runs in 6.5 overs for the loss of two wickets before the management decided to abandon the game. The pitch had a damp area which caused an awkward bounce and the umpires felt the pitch unplayable.
Pitch Report
The surface at the Melbourne Cricket Ground is likely to be of great help to the bowlers here. The Pacers could dominate the entire game. The average first innings score in the last five games here was 140 runs. The team that wins the toss could attempt to bowl.
Toss Prediction
The Hobart Hurricanes were the first team to elect to bat first in this year's tournament, but were then beaten on Monday! Therefore, we assume that both teams choose to bowl first if they win the toss.
Weather Report
The temperature will be around 20°C throughout the game, but there may be disruptions as the forecast for Wednesday evening in Melbourne shows a high risk of thunderstorms.
Head to Head
Both teams have played 21 games against each other so far. The Scorchers were the dominant side with 13 wins compared to 8 for the Stars.
Match Prediction
This appears to be a one-sided game as the Melbourne Stars already appear to be one of the weaker teams in the tournament. Although the Perth Scorchers are yet to play a game in the competition, they have a number of players in strong form. We predict a convincing win for the Perth Scorchers.
Melbourne Stars beat Perth Scorchers
Venue Details
As always, the MCG will be expected to deliver a wicket on Wednesday night that will allow for a good battle between bat and ball. There could well be more movement in the air than usual due to the humid conditions and we are not expecting a first innings total above 185.
Betting Tips
Looking at the strengths and weaknesses on paper, we believe Perth Scorchers are the stronger team and are likely to finish at the top. The core of their team is well formed and they always seem to be able to replace any missing international players with quality local players.
Bet on Melbourne Stars to win.
Probable Playing XI
Melbourne Stars
Tom Rogers, SB Harper (wk), Campbell Kellaway, MP Stoinis (C), HWR Cartwright, BJ Webster, LA Dawson, Usama Mir, JS Paris, Haris Rauf, Brody Couch
Perth Scorchers
Stevie Eskinazi, Cooper Connolly, AM Hardie, JP Inglis (wk), AJ Turner (C), LJ Evans, NR Hobson, JA Richardson, AJ Tye, Hamish McKenzie, JP Behrendorff
Top Fantasy Picks Dream11 Prediction
Melbourne Stars Key Players
Hilton Cartwright – The middle-order batsman scored a quick 33 runs off 16 balls against Brisbane Heat and we can expect him to be in the top five in this game.
Marcus Stoinis – With Maxwell injured in this game, the strong all-rounder becomes even more important to the Melbourne Stars side. He is a potential match-winner with both bat and ball.
Haris Rauf – The Pakistan international has a strike rate of 16.1 in T20Is and has the best bowling figures in T20 cricket at 5/27. He will bowl with real pace and accuracy.
Liam Dawson – The all-rounder has been in excellent form in white-ball cricket in recent years and the England international has taken 191 wickets in his T20 career.
Perth Scorchers Key Players
Aaron Hardie - On a pitch where no other batsman scored more than six runs, last year's leading run-scorer in the tournament managed to hit four fours in his 20 not outs.
Josh Inglis – The keeper-batsman has now established himself as Australia's best ODI keeper-batsman and has a top T20 score of 118 not out.
Jhye Richardson – With a strike rate of 15.51 in his entire BBL career, the 27-year-old pace bowler is expected to bowl a full length and provide plenty of momentum against the Stars.
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