BBL05 Review - The Bottom Four

Brisbane Heat
Once again built a squad that relied heavily on local Queenslanders with just a sprinkling of other state players (most of whom didn't get a look in), and probably finished better than expected with three wins to finish the season. The loss of Brendan McCullum before the comp started was a hindrance. Certainly had star power in captain Chris Lynn and West Indian Badree, but rarely had the firepower to go with other teams.
Lynn was excellent and gave the crowds someone to chant for. Joe Burns Test duties kept him out of the team for most of the series, while the local Grade batsmen were mostly unable to provide the basis of a good total for the team. Last minute inclusion Lendl Simmons is no McCullum.
James Hopes played his last BBL tournament and was again the mainstay with both bat and ball. He has been a great servant for Australian and Queensland cricket and both will miss him.
The Heat probably need a clean out and a re-think before BBL06 comes around to plug the gaping holes in both their batting and bowling line ups.

Hobart Hurricanes
Under performed dreadfully given the roster they had, and the fact that they lost only one player to rep duties (George Bailey) and that was only for their final match.
The batting failed to fire as they would have hoped. Star import Kumar Sangakkara was extremely disappointing, perhaps ranking as the biggest failure of the sixteen imports of the competition. Ben Dunk also failed to find any great form during the tournament, leaving Tim Paine, Bailey and Dan Christian to have to do the heavy work with the bat.
Shaun Tait had his usual moments during the tournament, as did Cameron Boyce, while new kid Jake Reed performed beyond expectations. In the long run, the team was unable to score enough runs with the bat to enable their bowlers to force the issue. For a team with so much batting firepower down through the order which was almost entirely unaffected by injury and representative duties, BBL05 was a massive disappointment.

Sydney Sixers
Last year's finallists were unable to put up a repeat performance this season, though they were a little unlucky along the way. Despite having Michael Lumb, Brad Haddin and Nic Maddinson for the whole tournament, the loss through injury of Moises Henriques left the team a batsman short on most occasions, and also an extra bowling option short. Jordan Silk was also not as beneficial as last season, which meant that big totals were not forthcoming.
Without Brett Lee and Mitchell Starc leading the charge from last season, the bowling also lacked some bite. Jackson Bird was tidy, and Nathan Lyon bowled well when available, but mostly the attack was flat and lacked penetration. Travis Head's demolition of Sean Abbott on New Years Eve was probably the most telling couple of overs of their season.
The squad the Sixers had should probably still have made the finals. No doubt a review of the season will suggest the same theory.

Melbourne Renegades
Had a complete revamp of their playing roster for this season, and still fell short of the finals. The costly exercise of importing Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo, as well as picking up Cameron White and Matthew Wade among others, still was unable to force their way into the semi-finals. With the recruitment of the big names, the team appeared unbalanced in having to go with lesser names for other places in the XI, and in the majority of cases this was costly in those games where they were unable to compete. Could be a case of back to the drawing board for the second Melbourne team in the BBL.

Gayle's Personal Glory Helps Renegades... Zero

From ABC Grandstand : Link here.

Chris Gayle has blasted the equal-fastest half-century in Twenty20 history but it was not enough for Melbourne Renegades to advance to the Big Bash League semi-finals.

The Renegades needed to reach Adelaide Strikers' target of 171 runs in 16 overs if they were to replace Sydney Thunder in fourth place on the ladder but they fell to a 27-run defeat, despite Gayle's heroics.

In front of 25,227 fans at Docklands, the star West Indian import set the tone early with four sixes in a row off the first over of Renegades' innings, bowled by Greg West.Gayle equalled the 12-ball half-century made by India's Yuvraj Singh with his seventh towering six before he was caught behind by Tim Ludeman off the bowling of Travis Head for 56 runs off 17 balls at a strike rate of 329.41.

The innings was a return to the headlines for Gayle - for the right reasons this time - after he copped plenty of ire for a sideline chat earlier this season with journalist Mel McLaughlin, where he said he was keen to be interviewed by her "just to see [her] eyes for the first time".

But at Docklands, while Gayle plundered the attack at one end, wickets fell regularly at the other.

Tom Cooper, Cameron White and Dwayne Bravo departed cheaply as Renegades slumped to 3 for 60, with a groan of disappointment heard around the ground when Gayle followed.

Peter Nevill (21 off 19 balls), Nathan Rimmington (26 off 19) and Cameron Gannon (23 off 15) kept Renegades' faint hopes alive but their BBL05 campaign ended in the 16th over - bowled out for 143.

Head was the pick of the Strikers bowlers with 3-16 off two overs.

Earlier, White won the toss and sent Adelaide in to bat but, led by openers Jono Dean and Tim Ludeman, the visitors were cruising at 0 for 85 in the 11th over.However, the Renegades managed to launch a counter-attack - storming back into the contest with 4 for 22 through the middle overs.

Bravo made the important breakthrough, dismissing Dean for 48 off 35 balls, with Travis Head (0) and Alex Ross (4) falling in quick succession.
Ludeman had played a support role to Dean, who smashed four sixes, but the opener became Xavier Doherty's second wicket when he was trapped LBW for 49 off 41 balls.
Strikers skipper Brad Hodge, who finished unbeaten on 37 from 21 balls, combined with Jake Lehmann for an important 55-run partnership that tipped the scales back in their side's favour.
Doherty was the best of the bowlers with 2 for 30 from his four overs as Strikers finished their 20 overs at 5 for 170.
Strikers will host the first semi-final against Thunder on Thursday night, with Melbourne Stars to host their semi-final against Perth Scorchers at the MCG on Friday night.

As much as people raved over how good this 12 ball 50 was from Chris Gayle, the method and timing of his dismissal, after seeing his team lose three wickets in the chase for a victory target that had to be achieved to reach the finals, spoke more of his drive in the game of cricket. Much like the ballooning praise and worship he received in last year's World Cup after his double century against a weak opponent which was then followed by a series of failures against teams that he needed to succeed against, this innings only proved once again that he may well electrify crowds every six innings or so when he comes off, but his value to a team in a tough situation cannot be relied upon. 

Equal fastest T20 fifty EVER! Gayle 51* off 12 balls! Here's how he did it: 2 . 6 6 6 6 2 6 6 4 1 6 #BBL05 pic.twitter.com/kkJ5cYRxa1

— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 18, 2016

The same can also be said of his West Indian teammate Dwayne Bravo, whose unimaginably reckless shot to the first ball he faced, allowing himself to be bowled by the very part-time offies of Travis Head, is the fairest indication of how he approaches his cricket.

The perfect anatomy of Dwayne Bravo's cricket career in that one shot #thoughtless #selfish #rubbish #BBL05

— Bill Peters (@westkiama) January 18, 2016

BBL Match 2: Strikers vs Stars

Scorecard

The Strikers struck early in the competition, taking down the highly fancied Stars team with what appeared to be a minimum of fuss.

It wasn't all plain sailed being 4/66 off ten overs, but another old boy Brad Hodge fired away to score 56 off 41 balls, while the up-and-coming star of Australian cricket Alex Ross pounded and swept his way to 65 off just 31 deliveries, to be the mainstay of the Strikers eventual total of 5/187.

The Stars innings was almost comical, as five catches were put down in the first half a dozen overs, four of them alone by keeper Tim Ludeman, and four of them also off the bowling of Kane Richardson, whose mood grew darker with each failing.
At 1/90 off 11 overs the Stars appeared to be cruising, but finally things started to turn for the Strikers. Ben Laughlin and Adil Rashid cleaned up the first four batsmen, helped by Luke Wright standing on his stumps, and Kevin Pietersen and Glen Maxwell playing equally ill-though-out shots in a pressure situation. Richardson returned to clean up the middle order, and finished with 3/22 off his four overs (which could have been anything). The Stars petered out to 7/168 and with some questions still to be answered of their superstar team.

BBL Match 1: Thunder vs Sixers

Scorecard

The Thunder's best chance of victory in this match was always going to be to bat first, and they were able to do this. Still, if not for Michael Hussey, the 40 year old veteran who still seems to be able to bat as well as he ever has, they would still be without a win in the Sydney Smash. His 80 not out off 59 balls propelled what looked like being a meager total to a much defendable one at 4/158.

Michael Lumb showed off his classic English fielding skills, not only misfielding terribly a couple of balls, but dropping what is quite possibly the easiest catch of all time.

Brad Haddin excelled with the first ball he faced in the Sixers innings, being caught plumb in front off Green, but immediately looking at the bottom of his bat as if he had gotten an edge on the ball. It fooled the umpired, who ruled not out, which makes this one of the most audacious efforts in cricket history since W.G. Grace put the bails back on the stumps after being bowled and exclaiming "the crowd came to see me bat, not you bowl".

None of this helped as the Sixers were routed for just 122, giving the Thunder their first victory over their cross town rivals and a solid start in the new season.

BBL05. Where Will They Finish?

Another season of the Big Bash League begins, and as always there is no chance in hell of me being able to pick who is going to win, except to say that at least 80% of the games will be won by the team that bats first (lock that in). Apart from that, here are my tips for the current season.

1. SCORCHERS. They just have something that makes them a good T20 team. Packed home stadiums help. Can't really see anyone beating them unless they get injuries.

2. SIXERS. Still good enough to be one of the better teams. Three spinners in Lyon, O'Keefe and Botha should mean spinning tracks aplenty, especially with Starc now out of the equation.

3. HURRICANES. Have to like their squad, and Sangakkara and Sammy will be handy. If Dunk and bailey fire they could go all the way.

4. STARS. Eclectic mix with David Hussey and Hastings and Pietersen and Wright with the spin options of Zampa and Beer. Will probably win enough to make the top four again.

5. STRIKERS. Will be good again, but surely not as bright as last year. Losing the players they have lost won't be offset by Jayawardene's arrival.

6. THUNDER. Maybe they'll do better than this, but even with the roster they've put together, playing on a dud wicket at Homebush is going to be costly in the long run.

7. RENEGADES. Don't like their recruits, even with the "names" I just don't think they can cut it with the rest.

8. HEAT. Again relying on mostly 1st Grade talent to do the job in the big league. If they win more than 2 of their 8 games I'd be very very surprised.

Can't wait to see how poorly this ends up in a few weeks time.