Friday night’s clash in BBL09 sees the second Melbourne Derby of the year, with the Renegades hosting the Stars at Marvel Stadium. The Renegades remain winless after 7 games this season, while in stark contrast the Stars sit atop the ladder with 6 wins in their 7 games. In the match these two teams played last week, the Stars chased down 142 comfortably for the loss of only 2 wickets, thanks to an unbeaten 68 from Marcus Stoinis and 40* from Glenn Maxwell.

First of all, along with our famous  FREE Cheat Sheets and Data Tools in our Data Tools section, new for the BBL09 season, Daily Fantasy Rankings presents the Draftstars Lineup Builder! Using our Data Tools and Projections you will be able to quickly build and import BBL teams into Draftstars by using the CSV upload. Access the Builder including tutorials on how the builder works by clicking the banner below.

 

Draftstars have served up their impressive offering with a $20,000 contest for a $15 entry, as well as a $1,500 Mini and even a $200 Single Entry contest for a $10 buy-in. Moneyball are offering a $5,000 contest for a $15 entry as well as a $500 guarantee on their $2 contest.

These two teams are both affected by players leaving to represent Australia in the one day series against India. The Renegades lose arguably their two best players in Aaron Finch and Kane Richardson, and have also dropped Tom Andrews and Andrew Fekete from their 13 man squad. Into the side comes Tom Cooper, Joe Mennie, Jack Wildermuth and South Australian fast bowler Luke Robins, with Daniel Christian to take over captaincy duties.

The Stars also lose a couple of players to international duty – Peter Handscomb and Adam Zampa – but importantly will hold onto their captain Glenn Maxwell and star opener Marcus Stoinis who weren’t picked in the Australian squad. They also lose Nic Maddinson after he injured his shoulder against the Thunder. Into the squad come Seb Gotch, Lance Morris and Sam Elliott, with Gotch likely to take the gloves.

 

 
 

Two games into the season and Marvel Stadium doesn’t look any easier for the batsmen. The outfield was quite slow for the first game against the Strikers, and then the Sixers took basically their whole innings to chase 153 last time on a tricky wicket. There is no reason to think the trend won’t remain the same here so straight away bowlers and cheaper middle order batsmen are on the radar more than usual.

When looking at the Points Against data these two teams are at opposite ends of the spectrum, as you may expect given their win/loss records. The Renegades give up the 2nd most points to opposition players in the competition, whereas the Stars are notoriously stingy this season. Everything points to a dominant Stars win and a Stars stack being a likely contest winner so be sure to find one or two low owned plays if you head down similar lines.

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

Batsmen

Love It – Glenn Maxwell ($19,500 on Draftstars) 

Maxwell is in a great place at the moment with his cricket and it is really showing with his performances. His unbeaten 59 against the Thunder last game was superb and he earned an economy bonus with his 3 overs. With Zampa leaving for Australian duty Maxwell is likely to bowl a few overs and this presents a nice back up on a pitch which might be tricky for batting. His middle order role is also a bonus as he is less likely to fall to a good ball early in the innings. Maxwell is the guy I want to be paying up for here.

Don’t Love It – Ben Dunk ($11,700 on Draftstars)

It feels like cheating but I’m going with Ben Dunk here again. He didn’t even make the team against the Thunder but he should return with the injury to Maddinson and may even open the batting. I expect this to bring pretty big ownership at this price if he is named to do so but I see that as a good opportunity to “fade the chalk” with a guy who is in horrible nick.

Who Knows – Shaun Marsh ($17,900 on Draftstars)

Renegades fans have quickly turned on Shaun Marsh after some merely steady innings. With Finch out of the side Marsh takes on even greater importance here and any Renegade success will surely hinge on Marsh anchoring the innings. The strike rate isn’t there but expect him to set himself to bat most of the innings which should return a decent score for his salary.

Bowlers

Love It – Haris Rauf ($18,900 on Draftstars)

There’s no need to jump off the Haris Rauf train just yet. He stepped up to the plate last game with a hat trick to finish the innings and take his wicket tally to an incredible 13 in 4 games. He should be hard to get away on this pitch and comes up against quite a brittle batting order. Stick with the speedster and enjoy the fireworks.

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

 It’s hard to not love a bowler at Marvel Stadium and most are priced low enough to make them worth a flier (yes even Richard Gleeson). Maybe Cameron Boyce is worth avoiding at the price given the strength of the Stars batting in recent times. While he was tidy, he went wicketless against them last week and his salary could be better spent elsewhere if that were to happen again.

Who Knows – Sandeep Lamichhane ($16,400 on Draftstars) 

Lamichhane has been a bit more up and down this season than when he burst on the scene last year but there is no doubting his high fantasy ceiling. He took 3/26 against the Renegades last week and takes on the number 1 spinner role with the departure of Zampa. The Thunder got hold of him last match but this looks a great spot for him to bounce back.

 

 

 

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