BIG BASH: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Friday’s Big Bash game between Melbourne Renegades v Sydney Thunder with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The New Year starts with a bang as Melbourne Renegades take on Sydney Thunder at the Carrara Oval in Queensland! This is the third game here with the sides from Sydney leading 2-0 against the sides from Melbourne! The Renegades will be hoping to change that this morning and bounce back from their close loss to the Sydney Sixers here on Tuesday. Hopefully we see just as much drama as we did in that game!
The Thunder had an impressive win on the same day against the Melbourne Stars. Their batting finally came off as they scored 219/7. On paper they are heavily reliant on their top three but the lower order has won games for them this season too. Hales scored 71 off 29 at the top of the order and that’s always going to set you up well. The criticism of Hales has always been the same; he doesn’t do that often enough. Ferguson scored a lovely 50 too, and it will be interesting to see how the Renegades bowling tries to deal with them.
The Renegades will be very disappointed with their season thus far. They’ve only managed one win from five games after being touted as one of the sides who had a chance of winning this season. They collapsed for 80 all out against the Thunder at the Manuka Oval already this season and they conceded 209/8 in the first innings. The reality is the Renegades need to bat better given the talent in their starting XI.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
This is the third game here and the first inning scores from the first two games have been 193/5 (chased) and 168/6 (chased). I would suggest we’ll see big runs again today; although the Renegades will surely be low on confidence given their tournament to date I would suggest we’ll see a higher score if Thunder bat. Sydney Sixers lost eight wickets chasing 168/6 against the Renegades, and given 193/5 was chased in the game before that it’s hard to say you’d be happy with 180. Personally I’d want to aim higher but as we always know – aim too high and it’s easy to fall way short.
RECOMMENDED BET:
The Renegades have been very poor in the tournament to date, and I’m very surprised to see the Thunder as big as 1.87 here. That’s one of the best prices I’ve seen so far on BETDAQ Betting Exchange in the Big Bash this year. The top three look to be in excellent form and they have been putting up a few 200+ scores. We could easily see another today if they bat first given the conditions. The Renegades bowling isn’t good enough to stop them in my opinion and although weak on paper, the Thunder low order has been smashing a few boundaries at the end too. Thunder should be 1.7 for me.
The Edge Says:
Three points win Sydney Thunder to beat Melbourne Renegades at 1.87 on BETDAQ Betting Exchange
View the market here -> http://bit.ly/BDQRenThn
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
Having watched two games here I would opt to bowl first; however you are giving up the chance that you concede a big score and put huge pressure on yourself. If I was Thunder I’d probably bat first after such an impressive win against the Renegades recently and with their top three flying you’d want to make the best use of conditions. I’d expect a game to favour the batting team here so I would certainly trade with that in mind – however the worry with the Renegades has been their batting. It’s good on paper though, and they have good conditions here.
Even though I expect a Thunder win, I wouldn’t mind getting against their middle order. Their top and lower order has been good, but not the middle. I wouldn’t be keen on supporting the Renegades batting even with good conditions – I would just wait and see how they do.
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