Brisbane Heat will face Sydney Thunder in a Big Bash League (BBL) fixture at the The Gabba on Sunday. This is a must-win game for the winless Heat. They still have a faint chance of making it to the final four of the tournament, and that will happen only if they manage to win rest of their remaining matches.
Thunder on the other hand have had a remarkable comeback in the BBL. Unlike their previous seasons performances, they have played good all-round cricket in this edition of the BBL. They have not moved out of the top two positions of the BBL 2015-16 points table. They have lost only one match, against Hobart Hurricanes in their last fixture.
Michael Hussey-led Thunder will be looking forward to get things back on track after that shocking defeat in their last match against Hurricanes.
Skipper Chris Lynn has carried Heat almost single-handedly, but has ended up on the losing side despite his back-to-back heroics with the bat. He will be expecting his side to pull up their socks and back him.
"If you look at our bowling line-up, we've got about four of our bowlers who have played 20 games or less, so they're learning on the job. There's been aspects of the game that they've embraced and they certainly improved on but the one thing that comes with experience is facing that pressure situation you know? Everyone's got a plan until they've been whacked back over their head for six in front of 30,000 people," Heat bowling coach Shane Bond told reporters on Saturday.
"As we go along and learn to deal with that, learn to cope with that, then you'd expect our performance to improve. If that does, then a win is not too far away."
Michael Hussey have led this Thunder side extremely well in this current edition of the BBL, and he is confident his side can yield a positive result on Sunday against Brisbane Heat.
"I'll be saying to the guys, 'Keep being positive and taking the game on'. In the end, a couple of great catches and a direct run out won them the game," Hussey said.
The 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.
Sydney Thunder:Mike Hussey (c), Fawad Ahmed, Aiden Blizzard, Jake Doran, Chris Green, Chris Hartley, Jacques Kallis, Clint McKay, Kurtis Patterson, Ben Rohrer, Andre Russell, Gurinder Sandhu, Shane Watson.
Where to watch live:
Big Bash League (BBL) 2015 encounter between Brisbane Heat and Sydney Thunder is scheduled for a 7:10 pm local time (1:40 pm IST, 9:10 am BST and 8:10 am GMT) start. T20 fans in India can tune into Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD 1.
The live streaming option will be available on Starsports.com andHotstar.com.
Audience in UK can tune into Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports HD 1 to watch BBL 2015-2016 clash- Brisbane Heat vs Sydney Thunder. The live streaming option will be available on Watch Sky Sports.
Viewers in Australia can tune into Fox Sports and Ten Network for the live action of the Big Bash League. Fans can also stream the BBL match between Brisbane Heat vs Sydney Thunder on Tenplay, Bigbash.com.au and cricket.com.au.
