BBL08 Match 10: Sloppy Sixers Fight Reality as Stars Take Control

At the start of this BBL campaign, when looking through the squads it looked a forgone conclusion that the Sixers were going to be hard pressed to win anything in 2018/19. They had lost some senior personnel and good players and had pressed hard with youth. The loss of John Hastings who had been signed as leader hurt as well. They won their first game thanks to one great partnership and three early wickets, but they now seem to have come back to earth with a thud, losing to fellow 0-2 season record Melbourne Stars at home.

It is obvious that no team in this competition knows what a good score batting first is, and that the majority of them have been scared off batting first as a result. The Sixers had a chance to make a statement in this match by making a solid 170-180 score to give the team batting second a target and put the pressure on, but a constant flow of wickets from poor decisions cost them, as it has done a number of teams this tournament.

The young Nepalese bowler Sandeep Lamichhane had his own cheer squad on the boundary and again impressed by bamboozling both Henriques and Curran with his wrong‘un, and was virtually unplayable under the circumstances. He was well supported by Adam Zampa who continues to push for his place in the ODI World Cup squad next year. The surprise was the opening pair of Zampa and Glen Maxwell, and the fact they made the Sixers batsmen try to put the pace on the ball kept them under the pump. As a result they were never able to break away after the loss of the first three wickets and their total 130 never looked enough, despite Jordan Silk’s excellent one man show of 41 not out.

The return of Peter Handscomb to the team following being dropped from the Test team brought raves from the media, with his entertaining 70 from 35 deliveries immediately allowing the media to suggest he was fighting back against a tough selection decision. To be fair, he was dropped three times, and received four or five long hops that he disposed of as they should have been, as well as two french cuts off his middle stump, so it was the most satisfying or selection-boosting innings as has been made out. What it did offer was that Handscomb does have a great array of strokes and hits the ball extremely well, and on a hard flat pitch with the field spread his examined technique at Test level doesn’t seem to have any problems. It doesn’t answer any questions beyond this match though.

The Sixers are now in dangerous territory. Their weaknesses have been exposed, and to be honest it looks doubtful that they will be able to fight their way out of it. To be any sort of a chance of making the final four they must have their bats such as Denly, Henriques and Hughes supporting Silk to make big totals and hope that their varied bowling attack will be good enough to defend it. At the moment it is tough to see where their next victory is going to come from.