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It’s the 1-1 Hobart Hurricanes hosting the 0-2 Melbourne Renegades in BBL action on Tuesday night from Blundstone Arena, Hobart. Note this game does have an early start time of 1445 AEDT.

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Draftstars have posted a $10,000 contest for a $15 entry, as well as a $1,000 Mini and even a $200 Single Entry contest for a $10 buy-in. Moneyball are offerings are to be announced at the time of publication.

The BBL is back in Hobart and we should see another high scoring affair at this venue. Obviously, the short straight/square boundaries are always a factor and both sides have plenty of firepower to take advantage. For the home side, you have Short, Miller and McDermott at the top of the order. Meanwhile, the ‘Gades boasts a solid top 3 with Finch, Harper and Marsh. Last season, the Hurricanes preferred to chase down scores on their home deck as they successfully won their first 4 games batting second. So it could be a good option to stack the Hurricanes top-order batsman in a potential run chase. Spinners are usually a risky option, especially against the Hurricanes as we’ll go into later on in this article. As usual, cold conditions are expected in Hobart with a high of 19 degrees during the day and it’ll be around 14-17 during this clash.

We have full team previews for BBL09, so you can read up on any of the Hobart Hurricanes and Melbourne Renegades players you may not be familiar with prior to building your lineups.

The Hobart Hurricanes are finally back at home on Tuesday afternoon after two rural games to start the BBL season. Firstly, they successfully defended 129 against the Sixers in Alice Springs. Excitement machine Qais Ahmad took 4 for 12, which included his famous somersault celebration! Darcy Short also started the season with a solid 51 off 40 balls and we’ll be looking to target him at Blundstone Arena in this matchup. Then on Sunday afternoon, the Hurricanes were outclassed by the Stars in Moe with a total of just 111 in pursuit of 163. When Clive Rose is top-scoring with the bat (32 not out), it’s basically not your day and the ‘Canes will hope to rebound against the Renegades with a better overall performance. Despite the loss, they can take a few positives into this matchup. Riley Meredith has 4 wickets (3 wickets against the Stars) in the first two games and his economy rate is very decent. David Miller and McDermott also haven’t fired yet but should enjoy the batting conditions here.

The defending champs will be desperate for a much-needed win on Tuesday night after two disappointing defeats. In their home opener in Geelong, the Thunder chased down 169 in the last over and the ‘Gades couldn’t chase 196 at Optus Stadium on Saturday. But Shaun Marsh has slotted nicely into this batting lineup with 42 and 55 runs so far. Finchy has made back to back starts so he’ll be looking for a big score, especially with the short boundaries on offer. While in the middle order, Beau Webster is proving to be a nice cheap batting option after 17 not out and 67 not out off 37 balls on Saturday night. The bowling lineup is where the Renegades major issues lie. Outside of the brilliant Kane Richardson, they’ve been pretty woeful. Boyce hasn’t taken a wicket in 8 overs and teams are targeting the English pair of Gleeson / Gurney. They’ve also given Dan Christian just 2 overs in 2 games and he didn’t even bowl against the Scorchers, despite taking 7 wickets against them last season. 

Interestingly, the bookies are liking a return to form for the 0-2 Melbourne Renegades as they’re currently slight favourites over the home side. They do have a nice 6-3 straight-up record against them in BBL. But the Hurricanes beat them by 16 runs in the last meeting at Blundstone Arena after scoring 183/6 and the ‘Gades managed 167/8. Not to mention, the Hurricanes went 5-1 at home last season. 

This season, our famous FREE Data Tools have returned for BBL09. We have also expanded our tools to both Draftstars and Moneyball (New!) fantasy sites for the tournament.

Access our FREE Data Tools for Tuesday's BBL Matchup here

Batsmen

Love it – D’Arcy Short ($22,400, Draftstars)

We simply have to lock and load D'Arcy Short in this matchup. Looking back to BBL08, Short scored 34, 58, 64, 68*, 28 and 35 runs at Blundstone Arena. He’ll also face a favourable matchup against the Renegades powerplay bowlers, where openers have feasted on Gleeson & Gurney thus far. Khawaja and Hales both scored 60s in Geelong and Livingstone/Bancroft took full advantage at Optus Stadium on Saturday night. 

Don’t Love it – Dan Christian ($17,500, Draftstars)

Christian is basically an overpriced middle-order batsman at this point after bowling just 2 overs in the Renegades 2 games thus far. He’s also coming off a 2nd ball duck against the Scorchers in Perth. So just not a fan of him until the Renegades start giving him consistent overs with the ball.

Who Knows? – Ben McDermott ($14,500, Draftstars)

With no Wade in the Hurricanes lineup at the moment, most would have picked McDermott to step up. However, that hasn’t been the case in 2 average performances with the bat. He struggled against the Sixers in Game 1 with 15 off 20 and against the Stars, he was in the sheds early on with 5 off 3 balls. But we know he has plenty of potential, highlighted by his 53 not out at this venue against the Stars in the semi-finals last season.

Bowlers

Love it – Riley Meredith ($15,300, Draftstars)

Flip of the coin between Richardson and Meredith but we’ll stick with the underpriced Meredith at this stage. As mentioned, he’s coming off a 3 wicket haul against the Melbourne Stars and he offers a nice floor of 67 points on Draftstars. He should be getting the Aussie selectors attention at the moment and we like his value against the Renegades. 

Don’t Love it – Cameron Boyce ($16,500, Draftstars)

Boyce has returned figures of 8 overs, 0 wickets and 75 runs conceded in his 2 BBL09 games. So it doesn’t get much easier at Blundstone Arena with short boundaries and spinners generally don’t have much success at this venue in terms of wickets. In the 6 BBL games here last season, spinners took just 5 wickets against the Hurricanes batting lineup. Which includes Boyce’s 3 overs and 21 runs conceded in his last outing in Hobart.

Who Knows? – Qais Ahmad ($17,900, Draftstars)

After a brilliant 4 wicket haul against the Sixers, Qais returned just 10 points against the Stars. So with a ceiling of 146 points and a floor of 20, he’s either going to cost you plenty of salary or return nice value. The ‘Gades middle order should offer a good matchup as the likes of Tom Cooper/Dan Christian are out of form. He’s taken 5 wickets in his last 2 BBL games in Hobart, so I’d say he’s worth the risk