Final word: Skippers, weather watch, super PODs Rd 5

Oh boy, it’s good to be back in a little bit of form.

After a slow start to Supercoach Big Bash 13, the Cooma Stallions scored 1,018 points to finish 189^th for the round, pushing the overall rank into 5,461^st.

It’s a vast improvement and a much needed round, now to hopefully continue it on!

It wasn’t all a tale of joy though unfortunately…

I made a cardinal error in Supercoach that cost me a few points.

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I was out at dinner when the news broke that Kane Richardson was out for the Renegades, meaning a change had to be made.

I had an extremely small window to make a decision, so I decided to play D’Arcy Short.

I was elated to see him knock out a half century and 65 Supercoach points, only to later realise I hadn’t put him into my team, I have no idea what happened.

Sam Harper was my auto-emergency who came into my team as a result, scoring 0 points!

It’d have been a round rank of about 14^th if not for the error.

Bugger…

All that being said, it was a great bounce back week so it’s good to be getting back on track.

Let’s take a look at the Final Word for Round 5.

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Weather Watch

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

Sunday

7:15PM: Strikers v Stars, Adelaide Oval

Forecast: Sunny, 26 degrees, 0% chance of any rain.

Verdict: All clear

Monday

4PM: Hurricanes v Thunder, Blundstone Arena, Hobart

Forecast: Partly cloudy, 22 degrees, 20% chance of rain.

Verdict: Looking pretty clear at this stage.

Monday

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

Forecast: Showers, 28 degrees, the chance of a thunderstorm. 95% chance of 4 to 25mm of rain.

Verdict: Bleak forecast with potentially lots of rain that may impact this fixture. Fortunately it’s not two overly relevant Supercoach teams at the moment in regards to the draw, but do be aware if you own any Heat or Sixers players.

Tuesday

7:15PM: Stars v Renegades, MCG, Melbourne

Forecast: Shower or two, 25 degrees, 50% chance of 0 – 1mm of rain.

Verdict: Looking fairly clear at this stage, monitor any updates throughout the week.

Looking ahead

The Melbourne Stars are on the double game in round 5.

Having already had two doubles this season we’re all fairly well invested in them already, so adding one or two players max seems the play.

They also have the bye in round 6 so you won’t want to overstock too much.

The Perth Scorchers are on the bye in round 5 and can be used for loopholes, however they come into two consecutive doubles in round 6 and 7 meaning they’ll be hot property.

Getting in one Scorcher this week in prep looks a decent play despite the fact they’re on the bye.

The Adelaide Strikers are also on the double next round, making a player like Jamie Overton a decent investment in preparation with a low breakeven and cash incoming.

Note next round that the Strikers and Scorchers play each other twice on their double.

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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.

Generally speaking I’ll look to single game week players, with doubles upcoming, as the low-ownership double game round players on that given week tend to sky-rocket out of super POD territory once the round begins and trades are locked in.

Tim David and Chris Jordan were last week’s picks at tiny ownership and went huge, knocking out 1 and 12 points respectively.

They were involved in the rain impacted fixture that saw only seven overs bowled in the second innings, meaning they bowled one over between them so that was a bit unlucky.

Sean Abbott – $174k – 4.6% ownership (top 10% rank)

Abbott is one of the best players to grace Supercoach, and due to no doubles on the horizon for the Sixers he’s very low ownership.

To think you can get one of the game’s greats at such low ownership is pretty enticing.

He has just three wickets in three games so far this season, but he could explode at any stage.

After this round, the Sixers also have a great draw for loopholing with plenty of games early in the round.

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Breakevens

Each week we’ll list the top 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)

Jamie Overton -43

Jack Edwards -39

Shaun Marsh -35

Mac Wright -34

D’Arcy Short -30

Hamish McKenzie -24

Aaron Hardie -23

James Vince -20

Laurie Evans -7

Mujeeb ur Rahman -4

Spencer Johnson -1

Glenn Maxwell 2

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Highest breakeven (Likely price drop)

Note that the substantially high Stars breakevens are the scores across both games of their double.

Beau Webster 182

Colin Munro 152

Jordan Silk 117

Chris Jordan 113

Hilton Cartwright 113

Cameron Bancroft 112

Mark Steketee 104

Jhye Richardson 103

Wes Agar 98

Michael Neser 96

Moises Henriques 96

Nathan McAndrew 95

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Skippers

I’ll be a little more brief on captains this week as there’s a lot to be done before Round 5 starts, and frankly, there’s only one option in my eyes.

Glenn Maxwell needs to be your captain.

He took three wickets last game, and scored 35 not out in a shortened fixture due to rain.

The GOAT Andrew Langley went against him for their last double, instead opting for Beau Webster which paid huge dividends, however Maxwell had an arm injury and wasn’t bowling at the time, and Webster hasn’t bowled too frequently since.

Lock and load Maxy and enjoy the Big Show.

In the event you vice-captain Maxy and he scores poorly and for whatever reason isn’t set to play the second game, you can look towards Dan Sams as a high upside skipper option off the back of a strong couple of rounds.