Comment below what you think the total aggregate score in this game will be for your chance to win the final author payout in SPORTS tokens from this post.
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Current burn and winnings stats as follows.
Form Guide
The third game of the playoffs sees the Adelaide Strikers play host to the Sydney Thunder. The Thunder have reached this point after their convincing win against the Hurricanes in the eliminator taking them 1 step along the long road that they must walk to make it to the final. You get the feeling that this game will be much more of a challenge than the one down in Hobart was for the Thunder with the Strikers going into the playoffs off the back of a very good run of form. Their one blip was in the final game against the Hurricanes where perhaps they just took their foot off the peddle a little and allowed the Hurricanes to rack up a big score which they very nearly chased down.
That batting power for Adelaide comes as a result of one of the best top 5s in the tournament with Salt, Weatherald and Wells being reinforced by Australian stars Carey and Head. Equally, the Strikers bowling is probably the most balanced in the BBL with them only being short of a genuine left-arm option to make them a truly complete unit. However, the Thunder go into this match off the back of a win at the Adelaide Oval during the round-robin stage and they will feel slightly aggrieved not to have done the double over the Strikers with the other fixture called off due to bushfire smoke enveloping the ground with the Thunder well poised for a DLS win.
As per my previous analysis of the Thunder, so much depends on their top 3 and that proved to be the case against the Hurricanes. I will stick by that assessment and say if Hales, Khawaja and Ferguson don't get the runs for them then no one will and this could end a very onesided contest if the Strikers can limit those guys influence. By contrast and as noted above, The Strikers have men throughout the line-up who can put runs on the board for them.
I predicted a high-scoring affair in the last match here and we were treated to a 400+ aggregate game. I think we'd be lucky to see that again but both sides know that on a good pitch with short square boundaries they'll need to score around the 170 mark batting first to give themselves something to defend so i'd still be tempted to go with an above-average score in this game.
Entries for this competition close at 8:30am GMT on Saturday, 1st February