Overview
This match shapes as a really interesting contest, on account of the Thunder surely not having anything to lose, and the Renegades now playing out the rest of the regular season fixtures without one of their biggest stars, England ‘keeper-bat Jos Buttler. Australian ODI squad members Aaron Finch and James Pattinson are also likely to remain match-by match propositions from here on, though both have been released to play this game after Australia’s big win in the first One-Day international at the MCG on Sunday.

The Renegades will go some distance to filling Butter’s shoes with the addition of West Indian allrounder Dwayne Bravo for the last two games of BBL|03, but if they are to repeat their Big Semi-Final appearance of last summer, they’re going to have to find a win against the Thunder without him.

The Thunder welcome back Tillakaratne Dilshan pending a fitness test, a huge boost for the embattled top-order. Fast bowler Luke Feldman also returns, providing another quick option for Mike Hussey.

Key Battle: the Thunder v their self-confidence
All the Thunder keep hearing about is the growing number of games it’s been since they last won a BBL match, and so the big battle in this match is going to be whether that number and all the accompanying talk is getting to the players. After some of the fielding and shot selection, and the horrendous collapse against Hobart, the easy conclusion to reach is that it certainly is. Simply, the young Thunder players need to forget about it all, listen to their seasoned pros, and just get about there and play the way they all can.

Dark Horse: Tom Cooper
With Aaron Finch now on national duty and quite likely to miss some of the Renegades’ remaining games, it becomes vitally important that the remaining Renegades take on some of his load. There might be no-one better equipped, or in better form to replicate Finch’s fireworks than Cooper, who is now the Renegades’ leading run-scorer behind Finch and Buttler. The Renegades need plenty more runs from Cooper if they’re to remain on track for the Big Semi-Finals.

Last Time
December 14, 2012 @ ANZ Stadium: In an all too-familiar Thunder tail, top order stars weren’t capitalised on, and a middle-order collapse to follow meant that at 7/60 in the 14th over, even making 100 looked an uphill battle. Some late innings fireworks from Ryan Carters (18*) and Chris Tremain (37*) did just that and then some, getting the Thunder to 7/116 from their 20.

Despite losing regular wickets themselves, the Renegades were never really threatened, with Aaron Finch and Ben Rohrer the main contributors, as the reached 5/117 in the 19th over.

Squads
Renegades: Aaron Finch (C), Fawad Ahmed, Tom Cooper, Alex Doolan, Matthew Gale, Dan Harris, Michael Hill, Muthiah Muralidaran, Peter Nevill, Aaron O’Brien, James Pattinson, Nathan Rimmington, Ben Rohrer

Thunder: M. Hussey, D. Hughes, J. Floros, D. Nannes, T.M Dilshan, U. Khawaja, R. Carters, A. Tye, A. Mendis, G. Sandhu, K. Patterson, C. Tremain, L. Feldman

Facts and Figures
Nathan Rimmington has been a standout for the Renegades pace attack, well inside the top ten wicket-takers for the season (8 wickets from 5 matches). In BBL|02, he took eight wickets from his nine matches for the competition.

Mike Hussey and Aaron Finch are the only cricketers to hit Etihad Stadium’s roof during a match. Hussey hit it during an ODI in 2005, while Finch hit it during BBL|02 in a game against the Hobart Hurricanes, and again this season on January 4 against the Melbourne Stars. Ironically, this year’s monster netted Finch six runs because of a rule change made AFTER his strike last season, where the rules at the time meant it was declared a dead ball!

Usman Khawaja was a welcome return to the Thunder squad on Saturday, on having missed three matches due to injury. He is the Thunder’s leading run scorer with 428 runs at 30.6 from 16 matches over three seasons of the Big Bash League, even eclipsing their former marquee man, Chris Gayle.

If there’s a stat the Thunder can cling to, it’s that their average total made in their six BBL|03 games is more than Hobart’s average total conceded (139.3 v 123.6 runs per match). Equally so, while the Thunder have conceded 161.5 runs per game on average, the Hurricanes have only made 127 runs per match across their five matches. It’s a small detail, but it might be the detail that gives the Thunder the confidence to win.

Broadcast: from 7:30pm AEDT on Channel Ten, and on Fairfax Radio Network.

Source: www.bigbash.com.au