The Hobart Hurricanes have gone quiet on their accusation the Melbourne Stars are rorting the BBL’s salary cap.
However the Hurricanes were happy to have another dig at the unbeaten Stars on the eve of their semi-final at the MCG.
Hurricanes’ batsman Ben Dunk, named on Monday as the player of the tournament, said everyone expects the Stars to win Tuesday night’s clash.
“They’re certainly under a lot of pressure,” Dunk told reporters.
“You don’t want to go through a whole season undefeated and lose a semi. So that’s something we’ll try to play on.”
The Stars had six players in Sunday’s T20 International between Australia and England, with Luke Wright playing for the visitors and Cameron White, Glenn Maxwell, Brad Hodge, Matthew Wade and James Muirhead in the Australia team.
They’re all available for Tuesday’s clash, while the Hurricanes will be hoping their skipper and Australia T20 captain George Bailey can carry on his form from the England series which yielded 123 runs off 62 balls in three matches.
Bailey averaged 123 and was the second-highest runscorer in the series behind White’s 174 at 87.
“They are international players but they’ll feel the pressure as well tomorrow night,” said Dunk, whose 348 runs at 49.71 placed him on top of the BBL runscoring list this summer.
The Stars have been the glamour side of the BBL for all three years of the league’s existence but have fallen at the semi-final stage in the past two years.
“Whenever a team goes through undefeated you’d want to knock them off. Absolutely everyone wants to beat them,” Dunk added.
“As a cricket community, everyone’s expecting them to win.”
The Stars have an added boost this time of hosting their semi-final, unlike previous seasons.
And the MCG fans will be sure to give the Hurricanes’ wicketkeeper Tim Paine a special welcome after Paine last weekend accused the Stars of operating under a different salary cap to their rival teams.
Asked about Paine’s comments, Dunk said he wasn’t fully aware of the issue as a team official interrupted and said the Hurricanes wouldn’t be commenting on salary caps.
The Stars also regain Sri Lanka paceman Lasith Malinga who had been called home by his national board to work on his fitness, but has been released for this one match.
A semi-final victory would not only put the Stars or the Hurricanes into the final but would guarantee them a place in the lucrative Champions League tournament.
Wright says the Stars are better-placed than previous seasons.
“I’d be feeling more pressure if we just sneaked in or we hadn’t been performing,” he said.
“In other years we’ve done that.”
