Adelaide Strikers vs Melbourne Stars Prediction

MLS Team News

Melbourne Stars are without five key players for the game against Adelaide Strikers. Sandeep Lamichhane has already departed for his stint in the Bangladesh Premier League, while PeterHandscomb, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell and Adam Zampa are in the Australian ODI squad. Liam Plunkett is the overseas replacement for Lamichhane, while the return of Nic Maddinson from injury has offset some of the blow of losing their international quartet. Maddinson captained the team against Perth Scorchers last time out, while Tom O’Connell has been added to the squad and Nick Larkin – initially an injury replacement for Maddinson – has also been retained. O’Connell and Jackson Bird were the two unused players last time out, with Jackson Coleman still unavailable too.

MLS Key Players

Hit by so many unavailable players, Ben Dunk stepped up for the Stars last time out – hitting his highest score of the tournament this year with 62 from 47 balls at the top of the order. He and Evan Gulbis (37) put on 65 for the first wicket, in 8.4 overs.

Runs in the middle order were what was lacking, though Nic Maddinson is back from injury just in time – he was in superb batting form before fracturing his arm in December and will be looking to add to his ten T20 50s.

All-rounders Dwayne Bravo and Liam Plunkett also have runs and wickets in them. Bravo took 2-18 in the defeat to Perth Scorchers, while Plunkett has taken a wicket in each game since replacing Sandeep Lamichhane as the second overseas player. Bravo now has nine wickets from six games in total.

MLS Team Form

After back-to-back defeats at the start of the campaign in BPL 2018-19, Melbourne Stars were in resurgent form until being hit by a number of international call-ups.

Jackson Coleman took 3-19 and Peter Handscomb smashed 70 from 35 balls in a five-wicket win against Sydney Sixers – the Sixers posting just 130/9 and the Stars reaching that target with 5.1 overs to spare.

That was followed by a derby win against Melbourne Renegades on New Year’s Day – Dwayne Bravo taking 3-27 and Marcus Stoinis leading the chase of 150 with 78 from 49 balls in a seven-wicket win. And they followed that up by chasing 136 to beat Sydney Thunder by eight wickets with 2.4 overs remaining – Glenn Maxwell posting an unbeaten 41 from 31 balls – to continue their resurgent form.

Last time out, without their international stars, however, they crashed to a six-wicket defeat to Perth Scorchers, despite Ben Dunk’s 47-ball 62. Dwayne Bravo claimed 2-18 from three overs but the Scorchers reached their 147 target with 2.2 overs remaining.