It is now or never for the Hobart Hurricanes, when they travel to the Adelaide Oval on Wednesday to face the upbeat Adelaide Strikers in a crucial Big Bash League (BBL) encounter.
Hurricanes fell short by just one run, despite Darren Sammy's heroics with the bat, in their last fixture against the table-topping Perth Scorchers. That loss struck a major blow to their hopes of making the semifinals.
A win against the Adelaide Strikers is a must for Hobart to stand any chance of making the playoffs, and the Hurricanes will have to do it without George Bailey, who is on Australia duty.
Meanwhile, the Adelaide Strikers have cemented their place in the semifinals already, with 10 points from six matches. They still have two more matches to go and a win over the Hurricanes on Wednesday could secure them a home final.
Strikers, who have lost just one match in this edition of the BBL, will also look to extend their winning streak and with it reclaim top spot in the BBL 2015-2016 points table.
Strikers, though, have been forced to make two changes to their side, ahead of the clash against the Hurricanes. Mahela Jayawardene hurt his quadriceps in the last game, and is ruled out, with Kelvin Smith replacing the Sri Lanka veteran. Hamish Kingston comes in place of Billy Stanlake, as the latter is also suffering from an injury.
Travis Head, who has been in sublime form with the bat for the Strikers this season, will want to impress again as he push his case further for selection to the Australian T20 squad against India, while Adelaide will also bank on the overall skills of Adil Rashid.
For the Hurricanes, their star batsmen Ben Dunk and Kumar Sangakkara have failed to impress this season. The former Sri Lanka skipper has only managed to score 101 runs in seven matches. These two batsmen will have to step up and score a few more runs if they want their team to make it to the last four.
Squads: Adelaide Strikers: Brad Hodge (C), Jono Dean, Travis Head, Jon Holland, Hamish Kingston, Ben Laughlin, Jake Lehmann, Tim Ludeman, Michael Neser, Adil Rashid, Alex Ross, Kelvin Smith, Greg West
Hobart Hurricanes: Tim Paine (C), Ben Dunk, Cameron Boyce, Dan Christian, Michael Hill, Dom Michael, Simon Milenko, Sam Rainbird, Clive Rose, Darren Sammy, Kumar Sangakkara, Shaun Tait, Jon Wells
Where to watch live:
The BBL encounter between Adelaide Striker and Hobart Hurricanes 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 fans can also live stream the match on Starsports.com and Hotstar.com.
Fans in Australia, can switch to Fox Sports and Ten Network to catch the live action of Adelaide Striker vs Hobart Hurricanes.
Adelaide Striker vs Hobart Hurricanes can be live streamed online on Tenplay, Bigbash.com.au and cricket.com.au.
Viewers in UK can tune into Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports HD 1 to catch the live action of Adelaide Striker vs Hobart Hurricanes.
Watch Sky Sports will stream the match live in UK.
