Final Word: Skippers, tactics, weather, RD 14

• SPY TALK: Breaking down SuperCoach Big Bash finals tactics
• SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL: Question and answer podcast

The regular season has come to an end, meaning Big Bash finals have arrived.

That means we have four more rounds of SuperCoach action to play before a new champion is crowned.

It took a while, but after weeks lingering in the 1,000s the Cooma Stallions moved into 949^th overall with a score of 827 points in Round 13.

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Apologies to anyone who followed my trades last week as per the article, I completely backflipped on them with that rain lingering over Adelaide resulting in a shortened match between the Strikers and Thunder.

To be fair, ‘WATCH THE WEATHER’ and ‘TRADES SUBJECT TO CHANGE’ were planted throughout the article!

Fortunately Tuesday’s triple-header wasn’t impacted by rain as it appeared it may have prior to the day’s play.

Here’s a look at SuperCoach Round 14.

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WEATHER WATCH

All weather is courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology as of Thursday, 11am. All times are in AEDT. Forecasts are subject to change.

FRIDAY

7:15PM: Heat v Strikers, The Gabba, Brisbane

Forecast: Shower or two, 29 degrees, 50% chance of 0-2mm of rain.

SATURDAY

7:15PM: Sixers v Scorchers, Manuka Oval, Canberra

Forecast: Shower or two, 28 degrees, 60% chance of 1-4mm of rain. Showers most likely in the morning, the chance of a thunderstorm in the afternoon and evening.

LOOKING AHEAD

There appears to be plenty of confusion across social media regarding how the BBL SuperCoach finals system works, so here’s a quick rundown.

There are four rounds to be played, with the first round (round 14) being two games to be played on Friday and Saturday.

The following three rounds will consist of one game each.

Players from the Renegades, Hurricanes and Stars are considered non-playing reserves (NPRs) and will lockout at the beginning of game two in Round 14 (Sixers v Scorchers).

That means that they are all perfect to utilise for vice-captain and auto-emergency loopholes.

We have UNLIMITED trades for each of these rounds, so you get a free crack at an entirely new squad for each round, so don’t panic.

Unless you’re really struggling, team value shouldn’t be an issue, so don’t look too much into breakevens and cash generation. At this stage of the season it’s all about the points.

Let us know in the comments if you’re still unsure about anything and we can clarify further.

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SUPER PODS

Each week one of our contributors will provide a full analysis on the point of difference (POD) players to consider.

In the Final Word, we’ll look at the super POD options, the players at under 5% ownership (or around about) that could send you soaring (or falling) up the overall ranks.

They come with big risk, but the reward is immense if it comes off.

In last round’s article, Nathan Ellis somehow only scored 8 despite a stack of wicket-taking opportunities, while Adam Milne scored 14, however he should have been scratched as an option with the match reduced against the Strikers.

From the week prior’s article, Sean Abbott and Mitchell Swepson delivered again with scores of 61 and 80 respectively.

Super PODs by definition will be harder to find this round due to only four teams playing, but we’ll keep it as low-ownership as possible.

As such, I’m throwing in an anti-POD alongside my super POD. Apologies for the obscenely excessive use of the term POD…

I won’t go on current ownership, because they’ll change dramatically come game time (E.g. Travis Head is currently only 5.9%), I’ll predict the guys that are likely to remain at relatively low ownership for the round which is going to be difficult.

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Mitchell Swepson

I’m going to double down on Swepson, although the reality is he’s probably not exactly going to be a super POD come game time. He’s 6.4% ownership at the time of writing.

Swepson has 2/20 and 2/26 in his past two outings for SuperCoach scores of 58 and 80.

He’s been extremely economical and his wicket-taking potential rises significantly with a vastly improved Heat side, allowing for more competitive matches resulting in far more pressure being applied to batsmen.

Earlier in the tournament when the Heat were struggling there was very little of this, making life extremely difficult for bowlers, especially when defending low targets.

Top quality spinners are becoming more and more dominant in T20 cricket, and Swepson is just this.

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ANTI-POD

For anyone new to the term, an anti-POD is a player of very high ownership (e.g. Jhye Richardson) who you avoid in order to gain a point of difference on rivals.

I’m reinforcing this idea stated by the SC Spy in his Round 14 article.

I think leaving out any very popular batters who are no chance of bowling is a good ploy this round if you are looking for a potentially large jump in ranking.

Obviously it can backfire, but so can most tactics in SuperCoach.

In the category this round is Chris Lynn, Alex Carey and Josh Philippe (both despite wicket-keeping points potential).

The main target would be Lynn if I were looking for an anti-POD.

If he goes low, you have a monster advantage on rivals as he’s likely to be owned by around 80% of active players.

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SKIPPERS

I won’t go through trades this round as there’s 16 spots to fill on the roster and we’ll be here all day.

However, my skipper options will likely be as follows.

I’m tempted to put the captaincy on Sean Abbott who has been sensational in his few games since returning from Test duties.

He’s averaged 65.5 in two games thus far, and he averaged 85 last tournament.

Most will go Jhye Richardson who I’ll certainly own, so I’m hoping Abbott isn’t too highly selected as skipper.

TEAM OF THE TOURNAMENT.

It's official! The BBL coaches have selected the following players as the very best of #BBL10 🙌 pic.twitter.com/jPME2nDvPd

— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 27, 2021

This means the vice-captain will have to come in game one between the Heat and Strikers.

I’m thinking I’ll take a slightly riskier approach, if you can really call it that, with Travis Head.

I’m hoping here that people will be scared off by his 32 point average in his opening three games.

The fact he’s hopefully going to continue bowling a few overs is a massive boost to his scoring potential.

Good luck to everyone in the opening week of finals!