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The third last game of the regular season in the BBL09 pits the Sydney Thunder and the Perth Scorchers for game 54 of the tournament. After the loss to the Hurricanes on Friday night the Thunder must simply win this game to have a chance to make the final 5. The Scorchers can finish 4th with a win and host the Eliminator next Thursday but with the Heat upsetting the Stars in Melbourne, the Scorchers need the Heat to lose in Melbourne on Monday night against the Renegades. This is the 1st game of Sunday’s Double Header with this match at Spotless Stadium getting underway at 2.45pm AEDT. 

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 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. A Double Header contest is also available with the "Player Swap" feature enabled. Moneyball are offering a $3,000 contest for a $15 entry as well as a $500 guarantee on their $2 contest.

The Sydney Thunder go into this crucial match with the same 13 man squad that played the Hurricanes in Hobart on Friday night. The Thunder’s run chase against the Hurricanes got off to the right start with Alex Hales going after Clive Rose in the powerplay on Friday night. Unfortunately his opening batting partner Usman Khawaja is out of form and number three in Callum Ferguson has run out of luck. Only Alex Ross was able to stick around with Hales (who now has back to back fantasy tonnes) until D’Arcy Short’s remarkable spell ended the Thunder’s night. The bowling attack are always under pressure when playing in Hobart and only Daniel Sams was about to cash in at the end of the Hurricanes innings. The Thunder’s 10 overs of spin conceded 75 runs compared to the 10 overs of pace going for 110. If the Thunder are to be any chance of advancing in the tournament they need to bowl the Scorchers out at home.

The Perth Scorchers are forced to make 1 change to their squad that defeated the Strikers at home on Friday night. Chris Jordan joins the England squad in South Africa for national commitments and in comes ex-international Morne Morkel who has been hanging around Perth after competing in the Super League in South Africa in December. The Scorchers chances for a top two spot were extinguished on Friday night has they failed to chase down the Strikers total of 181. Liam Livingstone’s 79 off 54 balls included one of the biggest sixes of the tournament with a 106 meter effort that got the Perth crowd going. Livingstone’s innings was all in vein as no other batsman reached 17 and ultimately were 16 runs short. In a game that produced over 180 runs for the Strikers only 5 wickets, the Scorchers bowlers all had a hard time scoring a decent fantasy score.

As with all previews featuring Sydney teams the weather might play a role in a reduced over game. The current forecast is for high (70%) chance of showers, most likely in the afternoon and evening. The chance of a thunderstorm is also forecasted. With the afternoon time slot in this fixture, a quick check of conditions is required.

From a fantasy point of view, Spotless stadium is an even contest between bowling and batting fantasy scoring and both sides are middle of the pack for points against. The Scorchers are slight favourites with the books and should be an interesting game to watch and follow fantasy on. 

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

Batsman

Love It - Alex Hales ($18,000 Draftstars)

Outside of Alex Ross, Hales is the shining light in this batting lineup for the Thunder. Hales had his eye in with fantasy scores of 107 against the Hurricanes and 122 against the Scorchers. Whether he can sustain it is a good question but your lineups will suffer if you do not pick him and explodes once again. 

Don’t Love It - Ashton Turner ($14,100 Draftstars)

Tough to select Turner who hasn’t play much cricket in this tournament then carried the drinks in India. Didn’t get going against the Strikers with a failure. If Turner was $1,000 cheaper then we could consider, but with a slate lacking good value then we can pass on Turner.

Who Knows - Kurtis Patterson ($10,500 Draftstars)

On paper it looks like a good value play where Patterson as been playing at 3 in the batting order. Outside of the Thunder game where we only faced 3 balls, Patterson has been solid but not brilliant. Depending on game narratives, Patterson could be pushed down the order if the openers get away to a good start.  

Bowlers

Love It - Fawad Ahmed ($15,900 Draftstars)

Revenge game at his ex-home ground in a Winner goes on match, sign me up! Ahmed has had a great season at the Scorchers where either he picks up wickets or at least keeps it tight to obtain the fantasy economy bonus. A great record at Spotless stadium and the pressure will be on the Thunder batsman to get through Ahmed.

Don’t Love It - Jono Cook ($14,100 Draftstars)

Hasn’t been a productive season for Cook where his best fantasy score has been 68. A couple of 20’s and a 32 are the highlights for the year but his price means he is pretty poor value. Would need an explosion of 3 wickets to have any bearing in this contest.

Who Knows - Morne Morkel ($15,900 Draftstars)

Well first game in the last game of the schedule. Looking at his figures from the South African Super League, his best figures were 3/21 at an average of 13.58 and an economy of 6.35 runs per over. I can see why Draftstars have priced him up here. Whether he can replicate this in Australia without playing for weeks on end? Who knows….