Sydney Thunder will face the upbeat Perth Scorchers in a Big Bash League (BBL) encounter at the Spotless Stadium in Syndey on Thursday.
Just ahead of this crucial fixture, Thunder got to know that they will be without their talismanic skipper Michael Hussey, who has been in superb form with the willow.
Hussey suffered a hamstring injury while batting against Brisbane Heat and will now be sidelined for this all-important fixture. All-rounder Andrew McDnald will replace Hussey for the clash against the Scorchers on Thursday.
Mr. Cricket, as Hussey is popularly known as, has already scored 223 runs at an average of 74, with three half centuries in five matches, in this current edition of the BBL.
Thunder have another thing to worry about, and it is the Shaun Marsh-Michael Klinger partnership at the top of the order for the Perth Scorchers. Marsh and Klinger have tallied more runs than the rest of the side combined in their five matches. Both batsmen have been in oustanding form, and have been one of key reasons for Scorchers' success rate in BBL 2015-2016.
"Shaun Marsh and Michael Klinger at the moment are two of the better in-form batters around the world and also in this country," Thunder seamer Clint McKay told reporters on Wednesday. "We know if we can get them early it goes a long way to winning this game of cricket."
Thunder have lost two back-to-back games and are in a spot of bother. However, they can still make it to the last four of this popular T20 tournament. They are currently placed third in the BBL points table. Thunder will eye top spot, by beating the Scorchers on Thursday. The Sydney side have a superior run rate to the Adelaide Strikers, who are currently at the top spot with eight points from five games. McKay is confident that his team can bounce back strongly against Scorchers.
"We see it [the two losses] as a bit of a setback, obviously we didn't play quite our best cricket in those two games, that we know we can play. There is no doubt we can get back into the winning circle come Thursday."
Squads: Sydney Thunder: Fawad Ahmed, Aiden Blizzard, Jake Doran, Chris Green, Chris Hartley, Jacques Kallis, Clint McKay, Andrew McDonald, Kurtis Patterson, Ben Rohrer, Andre Russell, Gurinder Sandhu, Shane Watson.
Perth Scorchers: Michael Klinger (c), Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Michael Carberry, Matt Dixon, Marcus Harris, Brad Hogg, Shaun Marsh, Joel Paris, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, David Willey.
Where to watch live:
Big Bash League (BBL) 2015 clash between Sydney Thunder and Perth Scorchers 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- Sydney Thunder and Perth Scorchers.
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 Thunder and Scorchers.
Sydney Thunder vs Perth Scorchers can be streamed live on Tenplay,Bigbash.com.au and cricket.com.au.
