big bash 2012-13

suprised there wasnt a thread for this- place to discuss things all big bash related..

today Melbourne Renegaeds beat Stars by 8 wickets..thanks to an unbeaten century from aaron finch.

Shane warne bowled 2 overs for 41!!

sydney sixers beat sydney thunder comfortably today!

Brad Haddin made a nice half-century

The commentator has just described Nathan Lyon as part of the Strikers 3 World Class spinners.

I kid you not

CF, we put up a general Aussie Domestic thread but I've been dragging the chain a bit... busy with work, etc.

This is fine though. Feel free to cross back and forth.

The Hurricanes are looking very promising again this year, the Stars a bit disappointing imo.

I have a feeling the Renegades and Strikers will be right up there this season.

Scorchers all out 69. (a new Aus record - slightly worse than NSW's 71 a few years back)

Lasith Malinga took 6/7... also a record here in Australia but just short of Supiah's 6/5 for Somerset? which is the world record.

Stars made a good start 29/0 before the heavens opened up. Need a few more overs to make a match of it.

Malinga's figures

Great tournament so far

Surely Perth need to sit down after this year and decide on whether players like North, Gibbs and even Katich should still be playing. They just look so out of 'form' and maybe it's better they just bite the bullet and use younger players instead.

Gibbs was in my big bash FL side, on another site

I probably would have picked him too!

I'm doing average in the SportsBru thing. It feels like I have as much chance of picking a coin toss... and I keep getting most of them wrong.

scorchers win a rain affected game today against brisbane heat.

crowds in this tournament are well down on last year, and the standard of cricket is down as well IMO..

i havent watched much of it at all, as i much prefer tests to hit and giggle cricket but a lot of people have said this tournament hasnt been to good.

Agree, it's not very good this 2nd year. Crowds are down and there have been some very one-sided games.

Impressive knock from Alex Hales today, making 89 off 52 for the Renegades after only being in the country for a short time! He is getting better everytime I see him.

And the flashing stumps are the greatest innovation in cricket since 6 ball overs.

Alex Hales is going to be an England great.

No idea why he isn't in the ODI squad.

Fantastic knock from Hales. Some of the biggest 6s I've seen at the SCG!

Chris Sabburg who is currently 12th man for the Brisbane Heat played for my local club side as the overseas player this summer. #givestrawbsagame

Final tomorrow is between Scorchers and Heat...suprised that these teams are there to be honest, the game is too close to call IMO, and the impressive form of Shaun Marsh could be the deciding factor...

Brisbane Heat continued their fine form by rolling the Perth Scorchers in the BB Final yesterday. Most pundits thought 167 would not be enough against a fired up Scorchers at the WACA but they stalled badly losing 5 wickets for about 5 runs and it was all over after that.

It was a bad day for WA teams - the NSW Breakers also hammered the WA Fury in the Women's Final earlier in the afternoon.

I haven't seen much of the tournament, particularly the second half.

However, there has been some debate over whether the tournament was a success or not (and its general strengths and weaknesses).

On the one hand we have Scyld Berry: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/twenty20/9813610/Australias-Big-Bash-shows-the-world-how-a-20-over-tournament-should-be-staged.html

And on the other we have Freddie Wilde (son of Sunday Times correspondent Simon, and an excellent young writer in his own right):
http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/inbox/archives/2013/01/big_bash_league_boon_or_bane.php

I'd be interested to hear what people that saw more of it than I do think.

Interestingly both of those articles assume that crowds were good - well, quite often they weren't, at least in the matches I watched. Perth and Adelaide seemed to be near full, but the (admittedly large) grounds in Melbourne and Sydney were rarely quarter-full (and sometimes echoingly empty) apart from for the manufactured derbys...

I felt this year's BB was a little up and down. I would say the bowlers had slightly the better of proceedings apart from some good performances with the bat from players like Finch, Pomersbach, Marsh, Hodge, Rohrer. Hale's first knock at the SCG was brilliant. Only 2 scores over 100 though.

Malinga, Laughlin, Cutting and Thomas were the pick of the bowlers with a few others having a good performance here and there.

The Renegades looked to have things sewn up for most of it but lost when it really counted. The Hurricanes and Strikers got off to good starts in the competition and were up there before faltering in critical matches. The Stars found some form in the middle of it but then suffered (I thought) when Malinga left to play in the ODIs. Both Sydney teams were hopeless. Ironically, the 2 finalists didn't fare too well early on but came home with wet sails.

Thus, the crowds were flocking to matches at the smaller grounds in Hobart, Adelaide (throughout) and Perth towards the end. They got 46,000 to the derby at the MCG and another decent turnout at Etihad... but Sydney crowds were disappointing and so too in Brisbane.