The Stars open their BBL|15 campaign at home against the defending champions, who are one from one this season
Melbourne Stars v Hobart Hurricanes: match preview
Match facts
Who: Melbourne Stars v Hobart Hurricanes
What: Match 5, KFC BBL|15
Where: MCG, Melbourne
When: Thursday, December 18. Bat flip at 6.30pm AEDT, first ball at 7.15pm AEDT
How to watch: Channel Seven, 7plus, Fox Cricket, Kayo Sports
Listen: ABC, SEN Radio. Listen in standard and real-time with no delay to live play via Cricket Radio on the CA Live app. Find out more here
Buy tickets: Tickets are on sale here
Live scores: Match Centre
Highlights, news and reactions after the match: cricket.com.au, the CA Live and Big Bash apps
Officials: Donovan Koch and Sam Nogajski (field), Eloise Sheridan (third), Chris Grant (fourth), Bob Parry (match referee)
Match squads
Melbourne Stars: Hilton Cartwright, Joe Clarke, Tom Curran, Sam Harper, Liam Hatcher, Campbell Kellaway, Glenn Maxwell, Jonathan Merlo, Haris Rauf, Tom Rogers, Aryan Sharma, Peter Siddle, Marcus Stoinis (c), Mitch Swepson
Leg-spinner Mitch Swepson is well in the frame to make his Melbourne Stars debut after a decade at the Brisbane Heat, joining the Stars' existing crop of premium talent in Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis. Liam Hatcher has been welcomed back to the squad after a brief stint at the Sydney Thunder, while teenager Aryan Sharma has been named after being signed as a replacement player for Scott Boland last week.
Campbell Kellaway will be one to watch having drawn plenty of praise for his form with the red ball, while internationals Haris Rauf, Joe Clarke and Tom Curran have all been named in Thursday's squad.
Hobart Hurricanes: Rehan Ahmed, Jackson Bird, Nikhil Chaudhary, Tim David, Nathan Ellis (c), Rishad Hossain, Chris Jordan, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Mitch Owen, Will Prestwidge, Billy Stanlake, Matthew Wade, Tim Ward
In: Jackson Bird
Out: Mac Wright (omitted)
Just the one change for the defending champions following their four-wicket victory over Sydney Thunder in the grand final rematch on Tuesday, with veteran quick Jackson Bird replacing batter Mac Wright. The 39-year-old has joined the Hurricanes this season after six years with the Sixers and is in line to make his club debut against the Stars, one of his former teams.
The Hurricanes Australian stars, Jake Weatherald and Beau Webster, remain unavailable due to the ongoing Ashes series.
Club news
Melbourne Stars
Hobart Hurricanes
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Players to watch
Mitch Swepson (Stars): Since Adam Zampa was traded to the Renegades three seasons ago, the Stars have lacked a high-quality local spinner, going to the draft each year to get the likes of Usama Mir and Imad Wasim. Mitch Swepson is that local guy. He arrives at the Stars as a Big Bash champion with the Heat following an exceptional decade-long career with his hometown team that's yielded 72 wickets at an economy rate of 7.66. Will enjoy calling the MCG his home ground, his most productive venue of his BBL career outside of the Gabba with 13 wickets in eight games at an exceptional economy of 6.27.
Nathan Ellis (Hurricanes): A solid start to the season on Tuesday for the Hurricanes' inspirational skipper, hitting the winning runs against the Thunder in the grand final rematch after earlier collecting 1-39 from his four overs. Coming off an exceptional year in white-ball cricket for Australia where he's solidified a spot in the first-choice team. Returns to the MCG where he hit his highest ever BBL score last summer – 40 from 22 balls with three sixes.
Top performers
Most Runs
BBL|15 BKT Golden Bat
| Player | Total |
|---|---|
1
Tim Seifert
T Seifert
|
102 |
|
2
Cameron Bancroft
C Bancroft
|
61 |
|
3
Cooper Connolly
C Connolly
|
59 |
|
4
Oliver Peake
O Peake
|
59 |
|
5
Colin Munro
C Munro
|
55 |
|
6
Jimmy Peirson
J Peirson
|
50 |
|
7
Jack Edwards
J Edwards
|
46 |
|
8
Nikhil Chaudhary
N Chaudhary
|
41 |
Most Wickets
BBL|15 BKT Golden Arm
| Player | Total |
|---|---|
|
1
Billy Stanlake
B Stanlake
|
3 |
|
2
Will Sutherland
W Sutherland
|
3 |
|
3
Jack Wildermuth
J Wildermuth
|
3 |
|
4
Ben Dwarshuis
B Dwarshuis
|
2 |
|
5
Chris Jordan
C Jordan
|
2 |
|
6
Shadab Khan
S Khan
|
2 |
|
7
Jason Behrendorff
J Behrendorff
|
2 |
|
8
Gurinder Sandhu
G Sandhu
|
2 |
Most sixes scored
BBL|15
| Player | Total |
|---|---|
|
1
Tim Seifert
T Seifert
|
6 |
|
2
Cooper Connolly
C Connolly
|
5 |
|
3
Colin Munro
C Munro
|
5 |
|
4
Nikhil Chaudhary
N Chaudhary
|
3 |
|
5
Ben McDermott
B McDermott
|
3 |
|
6
Oliver Peake
O Peake
|
3 |
|
7
Jimmy Peirson
J Peirson
|
3 |
|
8
Finn Allen
F Allen
|
2 |
Local knowledge
Rapid stats
- Melbourne Stars captain Marcus Stoinis (2,977) is 23 away from reaching 1,000 Big Bash runs. He would be the sixth men's batter to reach the mark in the BBL.
- Melbourne Stars' Joe Clarke (987) is 13 away from reaching 1,000 BBL runs.
- Melbourne Stars' Glenn Maxwell (149) is one away from reaching 150 sixes in the BBL, while Hurricanes wicketkeeper Matthew Wade (98) is two away from 100 sixes.
What's on the line?
After coming home with a wet sail last season to qualify for the finals with five straight wins, the Stars are focused on starting better in BBL|15 and doing the heavy lifting at the beginning of the tournament. The Hurricanes meanwhile started where the left off last summer by beating the Thunder in their opening game of BBL|15 on Tuesday. Another win here would well and truly have the competition on notice once again.
KFC BBL|15 standings
| Team | M | W | L | T | N/R | NRR | Ded. | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
SCO
|
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.235 | 0 | 2 |
|
2
REN
|
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.7 | 0 | 2 |
|
3
HUR
|
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.126 | 0 | 2 |
|
4
STR
|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
5
STA
|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
6
THU
|
1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -0.126 | 0 | 0 |
|
7
HEA
|
1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -0.7 | 0 | 0 |
|
8
SIX
|
1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -1.235 | 0 | 0 |
M: Matches played
W: Wins
L: Losses
T: Ties
N/R: No results
NRR: Net Run Rate
Ded.: Deductions
PTS: Total points