Match: Melbourne Renegades v Sydney Thunder
Date: 22 December, Thursday
Time: 4:40pm SGT/2:10pm IST/8:40am GMT
Venue: Docklands Stadium, Melbourne
Competition: Big Bash League 2016/17
TV Channel: Star Cricket will provide live TV coverage of the match between Renegades and Thunder.
Live Streaming: Sky Go, Hotstar
Overview
Sydney Thunder began their title defense on a poor note as they lost the season opener of the Big Bash League 2016/17 to Sixers by a crushing nine-wicket margin.
In the absence of their injured skipper Shane Watson, Ben Rohrer's side lost the toss and were put into bat after which they made 159 for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs. While the stand-in skipper failed, Ryan Gibson (53), new-signing Eoin Morgan (26) and tail-ender Pat Cummins (30) helped them set a competitive total.
Thunder's star Usman Khawaja's absence was felt as the top-order lacked the firepower. Andre Russell, who had a good time in the recently-concluded Bangladesh Premier League, failed with the bat (9) on Tuesday.
Thunder's bowling attack failed to restrict Daniel Hughes and Moises Henriques, who scored a half-century each to finish the match with 12 balls to spare.
Thunders will want to badly get back on track and live up to the tag of defending champions. On the other hand, Melbourne Renegades open their campaign on Wednesday.
It will be interesting to see how the Renegades cope up without their superstar all-rounder Chris Gayle. A lot this season will depend on their skipper Aaron Finch along with batting heavyweights Cameroon White, Callum Ferguson and Dwayne Bravo.
Renegades have a solid bowling attack, which has world-class spinners Brad Hogg and Sunil Narine along with all-rounder Bravo, who can be lethal during the death overs.
TV Schedule
Singapore: Star Cricket
India: Star Sports
US: Willow TV
UK: Sky Sports 2
Australia: Network 10
South Africa: Supersport
Team News
Renegades
Squad: Finch (c), Bravo, Ferguson, Cooper, White, Harris, Hogg, Narine, Nevill (wk), Rimmington, Tremain, Short, Doherty
Thunder
Squad: Rohrer (c), White, Morgan, Russell, Fawad, Cummins, Doran (wk), Gibson, Green, McKay, Nair, Patterson, Sandhu
