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Sixers a bet at odds-against
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Repeat of last term's final
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Turner top-bat appeal at 13/2
Perth Scorchers v Sydney Sixers
Saturday 17 September, 08:05
TV: Live on BT Sports
Team news
Scorchers are the defending champions. In a season of squad churn they appeared to get their disruption out of the way early. Mitchell Marsh and Laurie Evans are both out.
They then chose to sign Faf Du Plessis and Adam Lyth as cover, both of whom leave for South Africa and UAE league in January. They have also lost Tymal Mills for personal reasons.
Possible XI: Inglis, Du Plessis, Lyth, Hobson, Hardie, Turner, Richardson, A Agar, Tye, Behrendorff, Hatzoglou
Sixers suffered a chastening defeat by Strikers in their first outing. Perhaps they needed a shock because of complacency.
They have added Naveen-ul-Haq, an excellent death operator, to the squad with Chris Jordan not yet available. He joins 19-year-old spinner Iza Naveed who was one of the few players to emerge with credit from the Strikers loss.
Possible XI: Philippe, Patterson, Vince, Henriques, Silk, Christian, Kerr, Abbott, Dwarshius, Naveed, O'Keefe
Pitch report
The Perth pitch has been reliably good for batters. Six of the last 11 in the Bash have seen first-innings scores of 170 or more. Playing first dig runs is the sensible option, more so than Sportsbook's both to score markets. For example, only four of those 11 saw both teams make 160 so the even money is not much fun.
How to play
Man for man the Sixers appear to have the better XI, even if this is a repeat of last year's final which Perth, of course, triumphed in.
There seems to have been an overreaction to Sixers' defeat and the 2.265/4 is surprisingly big. We need only to believe Sixers are as good as Perth (child's play) to reckon that is value. We'll caveat the wager with Sixers batting first, however, because of the trend for big runs up front.
Tops value
Philippe and Du Plessis have been boosted to 3/1 and 11/4 respectively to top. But Lyth outscored Faf in The Hundred and the 16/5 has appeal on the Perth market. Aston Turner is always popular at 13/2. He notched a fifty in the final in an extraordinary rescue act for Perth. Dan Christian looks chunky at 14s at No 6 for Sixers.