Sydney-T and Brisbane-H will lock horns in the Monday encounter of Australia T20 League 2020-21 to find the first victory of the season. Both sides lost its opening fixtures to Melbourne-S.
Match Timings: Dec 14, 1:45 PM IST
Team Preview
Manuka Oval in Canberra will host the Monday clash between Sydney-T and Brisbane-H. Both sides tasted defeat against the same opponent in a season opener. Another defeat will make the campaign slow for both Chris Lynn and Ferguson.
Brisbane showed a flop batting show in the opening clash and bowled out on just 125. The middle-over couldn’t take responsibility, and the best fielding effort from Maxwell’s troops did the rest of the job. Brisbane would expect some fire from the skipper Chris Lynn who went for 20 in the first match. Xavier Bartlett and Matthew Kuhnemann were the positives in the defeat who bowled very well in the powerplay. The score was pretty low, so they couldn’t defend the total.
Mujeeb Ur Rahman’s availability is in doubt, and if he gets ready, Brisbane will be boosted in the spin. Canberra offers some help to spin, and in the absence of Afghanistan spinner, Jack Wood will have a big responsibility with his left-arm spin, who scalped two for 28 in the first outing.
Meanwhile, Sydney-T made a low start as they failed to chase 170 on the same ground against Melbourne-S. At one stage, Melbourne were looking to get 190-200, but the brilliant effort in the death helped Sydney to restrict them on 169. The late bowling brilliance couldn’t draw any confidence among the batsmen. From one down on 90, Sydney collapsed badly in middle-overs and fell short of 22 runs.
Captain Ferguson scored 54 off just 35, and Alex Hales contributed 46. The middle-order has a big loophole with the players like Ben Cutting and Daniel Sams. They are the all-rounders, and Sydney cannot go ahead with this lineup against Brisbane.
Pitch Report
The Manuka Oval has enough bounce, and the track offers plenty of help to pacers. It’s a batting-friendly wicket. The dryness on the track can give some advantage to spin, but it would be a high-scoring game.
Possible XI
Sydney-T
Usman Khawaja, Alex Hales, Callum Ferguson, Baxter Holt (wk), Alex Ross, Ben Cutting, Daniel Sams, Chris Green, Nathan McAndrew, Jonathan Cook, Tanveer Sangha
Brisbane-H
Chris Lynn, Max Bryant, Dan Lawrence, Sam Heazlett, Tom Cooper, Jimmy Peirson (WK), Jack Wildermuth, Simon Milenko, Jack Wood, Ben Laughlin, Matthew Kuhnemann
Key Players
Sydney-T
Alex Hales
Australia T20 League (last season) – M: 17, Runs: 576, Avg: 38.40
Previous outing – 46 (41)
Daniel Sams
Australia T20 League (last season) – M: 17, Wickets: 30, Avg: 15.36
Previous outing – 3-0-24-2
Brisbane-H
Chris Lynn
Australia T20 League (last season) – M: 14, Runs: 387, SR: 148.84
Previous outing – 20 (20)
Jack Wood
Previous outing – 3-0-28-2
