Brisbane Heat will look to win a second game in a row in the Big Bash League (BBL), when they face the upbeat Adelaide Strikers at The Gabba on Friday.
It will be a formidable task, though, for the Chris Lynn-lead Heat, as the Strikers have tasted defeat just once in the BBL this season.
Heat are languishing at the bottom of the BBL 2015-2016 points table with just one win in five games. Prior to their game against the Sydney Thunder, which they won by six wickets, Brisbane were winless. Now, the Heat will have to win all their remaining games in order to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Chris Lynn has been stealing the show with the bat in almost all the games. Lynn has amassed 287 runs in just five innings, at an average of 71.75. Lynn has also hit the most number of sixes in the tournament. Unfortunately, Lynn has not had much support from the rest of his teammates, with the batsman doing it all on his own again in the last game against Thunder. Lynn played a blistering innings of 75 runs from just 32 balls in order to hand his side their first victory of the BBL 2015-2016.
"He's got a really good understanding of his game at the moment and when you know what you're going to do every ball it makes a massive difference in T20 cricket. Hopefully that has a knock-on effect to the rest of our batters", Heat coach Daniel Vettori said about Lynn.
The Strikers will look to Travis Head for some runs. The left-hander has scored 155 runs in his last two innings. Head, like Lynn, is under consideration for a place in the Australia squad for the ICC World T20 2016 in India. Head has hit 14 sixes in the BBL this season, which is only second to Lynn's tally of of 19.
The Adelaide Strikers received a blow in the bowling department, as Kane Richardson, who has done well in this tournament so far, will be missing after being called up to the Australia squad for the ODI series against India. Richardson believes that other Strikers bowlers will do a good job in his absence.
"Everyone pretty much knows what kind of role they're going to play in terms of when they bowl in the innings, [Adil Rashid] is really leading the way at the moment through the middle overs and Benny Laughlin is really good at closing out at the end," Richardson was quoted as saying by the official website of the Strikers.
Squads: Brisbane Heat: Chris Lynn (C), Samuel Badree, Ben Cutting, Alex Doolan, Andrew Fekete, Jason Floros, Sam Heazlett, James Hopes, Josh Lalor, Jimmy Peirson, Nathan Reardon, Lendl Simmons, Mark Steketee.
Adelaide Strikers: Brad Hodge (C), Jono Dean, Travis Head, Jon Holland, Mahela Jayawardena, Ben Laughlin, Jake Lehmann, Tim Ludeman, Michael Neser, Adil Rashid, Alex Ross, Billy Stanlake, Greg West.
Where to watch live:
Big Bash League (BBL) 2015 clash between Brisbane Heat and Adelaide Strikers is scheduled for a 7:40 pm local time (2:10 pm IST, 9:40 am BST and 8:40 am GMT) start. T20 fans in India can tune into Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD 1.
The live streaming options will be available on Starsports.com and Hotstar.com.
The audience in UK can switch to Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports HD 1 to watch BBL 2015-2016 clash- Brisbane Heat and Adelaide Strikers.
The live streaming option will be available on Watch Sky Sports.
In Australia, T20fans can tune into Fox Sports and Ten Network to catch live action of the Big Bash League encounter between Brisbane Heat and Adelaide Strikers.
Brisbane Heat and Adelaide Strikers can be streamed live on Tenplay, Bigbash.com.au and cricket.com.au.
