Brisbane will face Sydney-T in the knockout game of the Australia T20 League 2020-21. The winner will qualify for the challenger game, and the losing side will stand eliminated.
Match Timings: Jan 31, 1:45 PM IST
Team Preview
Brisbane will enter in another elimination game of the Australia T20 League. Chris Lynn’s troops overcame the first hurdle with a comfortable victory over Adelaide. In the eliminator game, Brisbane’s bowlers shined with the bowl and restricted Adelaide on a mere total of 130. The ultimate package Labuschagne troubled Adelaide with the spin and bagged three wickets for just 13 runs. Swepson scalped two for 23. The spinning combination played a crucial role in the middle-overs. After a complete bowling effort, Brisbane suffered early blows as Adelaide picked Lynn, Marnus & Heazlett in the first 4 overs. Joe Denly and Peirson both avoid the scar, and Brisbane crossed the line. Brisbane has quality players, and in the last couple of games, we have seen other players stepping up. Labuschagne came out as a different player for Brisbane, and he has played an important role with the bowl. Swepson has also bowled very well in middle-overs. Brisbane’s pace-attack led by Steketee, who has accounted for 22 wickets. Joe Denly and Joe Burns are the sheet-anchors in middle-order. Denly was the top-performer of the eliminator game. Brisbane had faced Sydney-T twice in league-stage and won once. The most recent victory came in favour of Brisbane when Denly and Burns set up a partnership to chase down 175. Brisbane are fresh after three consecutive wins, and Lynn has got its best combination.
Meanwhile, Sydney-T finished third in the table, and they had a good break ahead of the knock-out encounter. In the last league-stage encounter, they defeated Adelaide by 9 wickets in the rain-affected clash. Sydney-T won eight matches out of 14 and seven times, they earned bash boost point. At one stage, they were in the race for a top-two finish but missed out the qualifier by one point. Sydney-T won just two matches from the last six matches, which hurt them later in the tournament. One bad game can knock them out of the competition. Batting is the big strength of Sydney-T, and they have quality batsmen at the top-order. Alex Hales is a standout performer who has aggregated most 535 runs at an average of 41.15. Usman Khawaja also had a decent season with the bat. Skipper Ferguson has also led from the front. Sam Billings is playing the sheet-anchor in middle-overs. Tanveer Sangha will try to enjoy the national call-up in this crunch game. The leg-break bowler has bagged 21 wickets so far at an average of 16.67. There is a slight loophole in the bowling unit, and their performance would rely on the batting. It will be a cracking contest between Sydney’s batting and Brisbane’s bowling. Sydney-T looks favourites on Sunday considering the balance in the side, but Brisbane can turn around the things.
Pitch Report
Manuka Oval is a decent T20 surface, and it offers plenty of help to spinners. Chasing would not be an easy task. The surface will get slow later the match progresses.
Possible XI
Sydney-T
Usman Khawaja, Alex Hales, Callum Ferguson (c), Sam Billings (wk), Alex Ross, Ben Cutting, Nathan McAndrew, Chris Green, Adam Milne, Brendan Doggett, Tanveer Sangha
Brisbane-H
Sam Heazlett, Chris Lynn (c), Marnus Labuschagne, Joe Denly, Joe Burns, Jimmy Peirson (wk), Lewis Gregory, Mark Steketee, Mitchell Swepson, Ben Laughlin, Morne Morkel, Xavier Bartlett
Key Players
Sydney-T
Alex Hales
Season so far: M: 14, Runs: 535, Avg: 41.15
Tanveer Sangha
Season so far: M: 14, Wickets: 21, Avg: 16.67
Brisbane-H
Chris Lynn
Season so far: M: 11, Runs: 426, Avg: 38.72
Marnus Labuschagne
Season so far: M: 4, Runs: 129, Wickets: 9
