Final Word: Captains, weather, super PODs, Rd 2

Supercoach Big Bash started with a bang, with three teams on the double game week.

There were substantial flops to highly owned players such as Marcus Stoinis, Rilee Rossouw and Matt Gilkes, while a few of the game’s best stepped up in the form of Matt Short, Dan Sams and Rashid Khan.

There was then of course the phenomenal display across two games from Henry Thornton to amass 260 points, congratulations to our man Maxy Bryden who called Thornton as a super POD from the first podcast of the pre-season.

Despite not owning Thornton or Joe Clarke for his century, the Cooma Stallions started nicely with 1,324 points to sit in 187^th position overall.

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Shout out to a few players who delivered, starting with the veteran Nathan Coulter-Nile (187 points), Fazalhaq Farooqi (184) and Adam Zampa (149) who returned to Supercoach form.

Round 1 for me reiterated the importance of using auto-emergencies effectively, as I was able to bench both Rilee Rossouw and Matt Gilkes, while playing Matt Wade and bringing in Chris Lynn late as a result of the way my team’s results panned out.

This week the attention turns to the Perth Scorchers, who join the Sydney Thunder on the double game week.

Let’s take a look at Supercoach BBL Round 2.

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Weather Watch

All weather is courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology as of Saturday, 2PM. All times are in AEDT. Forecasts are subject to change.

Saturday

7:05PM: Scorchers v Sixers, Optus Stadium, Perth

Forecast: Sunny, 31 degrees, 0% chance of rain.

Verdict: All clear

Sunday

7:15PM: Renegades v Thunder, Marvel Stadium, Melbourne

Forecast: Sunny, 24 degrees, 0% chance of rain.

Verdict: All clear

Monday

7:15PM: Hurricanes v Scorchers, UOT Stadium, Tasmania

Forecast: Partly cloudy, 19 degrees, 0% chance of rain.

Verdict: All clear

Tuesday

7:15PM: Strikers v Thunder, Adelaide Oval

Forecast: Cloudy, 31 degrees, 20% chance of rain.

Verdict: Likely all clear, monitor updated forecast in coming days.

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Looking Ahead

The Scorchers and Thunder are on the double this week, so they’re going to be hot property.

The Scorchers in particular are well-placed to defend their title with a red-hot outfit, and their schedule is excellent with three double game rounds between round 2 and 12, without a bye in that period.

For that reason, certain guns may be able to be held for the duration, although do be aware their fast-bowling stocks are deep, so they will all earn rests at stages.

As for the Thunder, they have the bye next round, so be cautious not to be short on players next week if you’ve overinvested in their contingent.

The Brisbane Heat and Melbourne Stars are on the bye this round, so you may have to move on a few Stars players to field a full XI.

The Heat have the double next round, so it’s not the worst move at all to go early on one of their players in prep for round 3 if you’re happy with your current squad for this week.

There are no doubles or byes in round 4, so we can use that week to regroup our sides.

Super PODs

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.

As ownerships of double game week players will likely soar above 10% for most of those options closer to game time once trades are made, I’ll look towards single game week players.

Akeal Hosein – $124,600 – 3.8% ownership

The West Indian started in fine style taking 3/15 off his four overs against the Heat, delivering 116 points in the process.

He looks absolute class, and sits with a breakeven of -32, so there’s a decent chunk of cash incoming.

Importantly, the Renegades play very early in the round in upcoming weeks, playing game two in round 2, then game 1 in round 3, 4 and 5, making him a terrific auto-emergency loop option if he fails.

The Renegades have the double in round 5, so it could be early prep that saves you a lot of coin if he continues to fire.

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Breakevens

Each week we’ll list the top 10 players with both the highest and lowest breakevens, plus a few additional players worth noting, to help track your cash movement.

The breakeven number is the score required in the upcoming round for a player to make or lose money.

Lowest breakeven (Money-makers)

Henry Thornton -56

Nathan Coulter-Nile -52

Beau Webster -34

Matt Kuhnemann -33

Akeal Hosein -32

Adam Zampa -24

Nic Maddinson -16

Izharulhaq Naveed -12

Fazalhaq Farooqi -4

Paddy Dooley -4

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Highest breakeven (Likely price drop)

Note that the substantially high Scorchers and Thunder breakevens are the scores across both games of their double.

Jason Sangha 166

Alex Hales 137

Xavier Bartlett 128

Faf du Plessis 123

Daniel Sams 119

Ben McDermott 117

Rilee Rossouw 111

Ashton Agar 110

Brendan Doggett 110

AJ Tye 107

Matt Gilkes 105

Peter Siddle 103

Jhye Richardson 102

Kane Richardson 100

Rashid Khan 89

Josh Philippe 84

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Skippers

The Scorchers play in game one of the round, and they’re stacked with options for quality vice-captain picks.

Despite concern over fitness and whether or not he’ll play both games, I’m leaning towards Jhye Richardson who is a superstar in the format which translates exceedingly well to Supercoach scoring.

As mentioned earlier, rotation is a risk with the quick bowlers in particular.

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As such, perhaps Ashton Agar is the safest pick with a great all-rounder role, likely batting at seven and he will get his four overs and should almost certainly play both games.

My skipper will come from the Thunder who play in game two, and it’s almost impossible to go against Dan Sams who is batting at six and bowling death.

He arguably has the best role in Supercoach and was even initially listed to bat at five, before coming in at six behind Alex Ross.

I would be tempted by Farooqi after an outstanding opening round, but with Usman Qadir on deck in Sydney, and the fact the Thunder can only play three of their four internationals, there’s just some concern he may only play one game of the double so it seems risky.