Melbourne Renegades vs Sydney Sixers, Big Bash League 2018/19, Today Match Prediction 29 Dec 2018

mlr vs ss Match Prediction & Analysis

Melbourne Renegades will host Sydney Sixers for the 12th game on Saturday in the Big Bash League, the domestic T20 competition in Australia is into its 8th season – BBL|08. A double round robin stage – each team playing other twice - followed by semi-finals and then the Final is the format of the tournament.

This is fourth game for the Sixers and the third one for hosts Melbourne Renegades. Sydney Sixers after losing two matches on the trot will be facing a confident Melbourne Renegades who are yet to lose a match in this season of BBL. The Renegades have never reached finals of the BBL in last 7 seasons but must be looking to capitalize on the current form to go all the way this time around.

TEAMS PREVIEW

Melbourne Renegades Preview

The semi-finalists of the last season Melbourne Renegades who narrowly missed out on a spot in the finals against Adelaide Strikers have made good strides in this BBL so far having won the first two matches comfortably.

In their opening game of the season, the Renegades restricted Perth Scorchers to meagre 103 and chased it out with more than 4 overs and 4 wickets to spare. The second encounter against defending champions Adelaide Strikers proved a tougher one. Chasing 175 the Renegades were reduced to 82 for 5, however, the unbroken 94 run stand between Christian and Nabi saw them through with 5 wickets and 5 balls to spare.

The Renegades bat deep with all-rounders Daniel Christian and Mohammed coming in at 5 and 6 and they have effective bowling lineup headed by Kane Richardson. These guys need to keep performing for Renegades to have a shot at the title this season.

Melbourne Renegades Predicted Playing XI:

TLW Cooper (c), SB Harper, TP Ludeman, CL White, KR Smith, Mohammad Nabi, DT Christian, JD Wildermuth, CJ Boyce, KW Richardson, Usman Shinwari

Sydney Sixers Preview

Sydney Sixers started the season in a promising fashion beating Perth Scorchers comfortably by 17 runs. However, two consecutive defeats have pegged them back and have made them desperate for a win now.

Against the cross-city rivals Sydney Thunder, the Sixers lost by 21 despite Tom Curran’s late fightback. The defeat against Melbourne Stars was even worse. Sydney Sixers could manage only 130 in 20 overs losing 9 wickets. The Stars chased down the target comfortably with 5 wickets and more than 5 overs remaining.

The Sixers under the captaincy of Henriques need to regroup quickly against the Stars to stop the slide. A lot depends on how all-rounder Tom Curran’s day shapes. The Sixers will need something special from him to get back in the series.

Sydney Sixers Predicted Playing XI:

MC Henriques (c), J Edwards, JL Denly, DP Hughes, JC Silk, JR Philippe, TK Curran, SA Abbott, SNJ O'Keefe, BJ Dwarshuis, GA West

Weather Conditions

The conditions at Docklands Stadium, Melbourne support seamers. This was evident from the low scoring game between Renegades and Perth Scorchers where seamers asked tough questions of the batsmen.

Toss: To Bowl

The team winning the toss should look to Bowl first here and restricts the opposition to as low a score as possible and then try to negotiate seamers in the opposition squad to achieve the set target.