Melbourne Stars are all set to face Hobart Hurricanes in a Big Bash League (BBL) 2015-2016 match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday.
With the tournament already halfway through and semi-final spots at stake, both the sides cannot afford to lose this encounter.
Stars have been on a good run of late after registering two back-to-back win in the ongoing season of the BBL. Riding on a scintillating century of Luke Wright, Stars outplayed the Renegades quite comfortably in the Melbourne derby earlier this week.
Hurricanes, on the other hand, lost against Renegades in their last game. Both the sides can still make it to the final four. Hurricanes have a better chance as they will be eyeing the second spot in the BBL 2015-2016 points table on Wendesday when they will clash against the Stars. But if Hurricanes lose against Stars, then it will strike a blow to their desire of making it to the semi-finals of the tournament.
Hurricanes skipper Tim Paine is wary about the situation. Paine believed that his side cannot commit similar mistakes in their game against the Stars like they did against Renegades, as a result of which they lost their last match by five wickets.
"To come out and play like that — to bat like that, to bowl like that — even from our first or second ball our energy in the field was poor and you can't afford to do that in this competition or you make us look silly," Paine told reporters.
Looking at the Stars, they are too good a side to be languishing at the bottom of the points table. They will need their star players like Luke Wright, Glenn Maxwell, Kevin Pietersen, James Faulkner and others to fire against the Hurricanes.
Stars will miss the services of Maxwell, Faulkner and Scott Boland after this match as all three of them will be a part of the Australia ODI squad against India. But all of them want to leave for the ODI series on a high by beating Hurricanes.
"I still think we've got a strong enough side. We bat deep enough and bowl deep enough that I think we'll be fine going into the last few rounds," Boland told mediapersons ahead of their clash against Hobart Hurricanes.
"I'm sure the coaching staff have some things in place to cope with that [player loss]. I'm sure we'll be fine. We've got some nice momentum going now and other teams are losing players as well – it's not just us."
Squads:
Melbourne Stars: David Hussey (C), Michael Beer, Scott Boland, Jackson Coleman, James Faulkner, Evan Gulbis. Peter Handscomb, John Hastings, Glenn Maxwell, Kevin Pietersen, Marcus Stoinis, Luke Wright, Adam Zampa.
Hobart Hurricanes: Tim Paine (C), Ben Dunk, George Bailey, Cameron Boyce, Dan Christian, Simon Milenko, Sam Rainbird, Jake Reed, Clive Rose, Darren Sammy, Kumar Sangakkara, Shaun Tait, Jon Wells.
Where to watch live:
Big Bash League (BBL) 2015 clash between Melbourne Stars 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 live streaming option 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- Melbourne Stars and Hobart Hurricanes.
The live streaming option will be available on Watch Sky Sports.
In Australia, T20 fans can tune into Fox Sports and Ten Network to catch live action of the Big Bash League encounter between Stars and Hurricanes.
Melbourne Stars vs Hobart Hurricanes can be streamed live on Tenplay, Bigbash.com.au and cricket.com.au.
