Perth Scorchers vs Sydney Thunder Prediction

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Perth Scorchers’ bad form has not been helped by the fact they had so many players away on international duty. It is a huge boost to them as a team, if not for the players themselves, that they have nobody in the Australia test squad to face Sri Lanka – that means Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Jhye Richardson and Jason Behrendorff all return and Ashton Turner remains available too. They have lost English all-rounder David Willey, however, who has been forced to return home due to a shoulder injury. Ashton Agar is also out for the remainder of this season’s Big Bash due to a dislocated finger.

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With their international players all available again, Perth Scorchers have plenty of batting talent to call upon, to add to those already showing form with the bat. Ashton Turner is in the latter category – he has 302 runs from nine innings, with the turning point in his season having been the reverse fixture against Sydney Thunder when he hit 60 not out from 36 balls.

Cameron Bancroft, back from his ball tampering ban, scored 59 against the Melbourne Stars and an unbeaten 87 against Sydney Sixers, meanwhile, meaning he has 191 runs from six innings despite a duck last time out.

Those two will now be joined in the batting line-up by the Marsh brothers, who have plenty to prove after being dropped from the Australia test squad. Mitchell has hit six half-centuries and claimed 42 wickets in his T20 career though, while Shaun was in good form in the recent Australia vs India ODI series and can count himself unlucky to be out of test favour. He hit 54, 131 and 39 in the three ODIs against India and this is his first T20 appearance of the season.

With the ball, Jason Behrendorff returns after taking eight wickets in his first six Big Bash appearances before the ODI series. Against India, he took 2-39 and 1-52 in his two matches. Nathan Coulter-Nile has nine wickets – and also hit a handy unbeaten 31 against Hobart Hurricanes with the bat – while Andrew Tye has eight wickets in his last three games to remind everyone how he has built such a reputation in the Big Bash. That includes 4-18 against the Melbourne Stars.Finally, Jhye Richardson is also back from Australia duty. He took seven wickets in five games for the Scorchers before departing, and then starred with 4-26 in the first ODI on his way to six wickets in the series.

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Perth Scorchers had got back on track with two consecutive wins before losing to league leaders Hobart Hurricanes last time out. After three defeats in a row following their only other win – in which they bowled Adelaide Strikers out for 88 – Andrew Tye’s bowling helped them to victory against Melbourne Stars.Tye took 4-18 to restrict the Star to 146/6 and Cameron Bancroft hit 59 from 42 balls in the reply, as the Scorchers claimed a six-wicket win with 2.2 overs remaining.

Next up, replying to 177/5 against the Sydney Sixers, Bancroft hit an unbeaten 87 from 61 balls to lead the Scorchers to a seven-wicket win with seven balls to spare.

He could not continue that form, however, falling cheaply as Sam Whiteman’s 68 lifted the Scorchers to 177/9 against the Hurricanes. They took Hobart to the final over in the reply – and looked to be on top too – but James Faulkner hit two sixes and a four off the first three balls to give the Hurricanes the 16 runs they needed and a four-wicket win.