Head not sure he'll watch as Strikers face nervous final day

Having been reduced to a spectator for the second half of the recent Vodafone Test campaign, Travis Head isn't sure he'll be glued to the television today as the fate of his Adelaide Strikers rests on the results of three KFC BBL games played across 10 hours in two cities.

Following the Strikers' nine-wicket loss to Sydney Thunder at Adelaide Oval last night, there's a chance Head's men might slip from their current fourth place to as low as second-bottom should results of the public holiday triple-header conspire against them.

Match Centre: BBL|10 final-day triple-header

And even though the Adelaide team will convene within the confines of their bio-secure 'bubble' today with all three games – at Adelaide Oval and the MCG – being shown on a big screen, Head doesn't foresee himself settling in for some heavy-duty watching.

Rather, he's more likely to make occasional checks on the scores of matches beginning with Brisbane Heat v Perth Scorchers, then Melbourne Renegades v Hobart Hurricanes and, finally, Melbourne Stars v Sydney Sixers.

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BBL|10 Finals Series
(venues tbc, all matches will be screen on Channel 7, Fox Cricket & Kayo)

Friday Jan 29: The Eliminator (Fourth v Fifth)

Saturday Jan 30: The Qualifier (First v Second)

Sunday Jan 31: The Knock-Out (Third v Winner of The Eliminator)

Thurs Feb 4: The Challenger (Loser of The Qualifier v Winner of The Knock-Out)

Sat Feb 6: The Final (Winner of The Qualifier v Winner of The Challenger)

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If top-of-the-table Scorchers win the first and bottom-placed Renegades defy form to take the second, then the Strikers finals hopes come down to the season finale and any distribution of Bash Boost points along the way.

"It's good for the nuffies, the cricket lovers in the team will get to watch three games of cricket," Head said in the wake of Sydney Thunder's clinical win last night that lifted them to third place, assured of a finals berth.

"We'll have a little get together to watch them but how much I watch of it, we'll see.

"I've watched a fair bit of cricket, so I might be one of the boys watching the scorecards rather than watching the games.

"As long as results are going our way, we'll probably watch the last one – or we may only watch one, who knows."

After losing his place in Australia's Test team after the second Test of the Vodafone Series against India, Head has played little competitive cricket over the past four weeks.

His three appearances in BBL|10 have netted him scores of 25, 31 and 2, and the Strikers inability to defend their total of 4-115 last night – in a rain-reduced match of 14 overs per side, having been asked to bat first on a pitch that had sweated under covers all day – compounded his frustration.

Had his team pocketed the points for the second time in as many days against the Thunder, they would be occupying the comparative comfort of the Sydney side who will watch today's triple-header simply to find out who they will face in finals, rather than their season's fate.

As a result, Head's rival skipper – and his long-time South Australia teammate – Callum Ferguson cut a far more relaxed figure after last night's game that was preceded by a freakish Adelaide summer storm that deposited more than the average January rainfall in the space of several hours.

Ferguson's 46no off 33 balls was crucial to the Thunder's ultimately comfortable win, as he combined with ex-England opener Alex Hales (63no from 39) in an unbeaten 116-run second-wicket stand that saw their team home with 11 balls to spare.

The Thunder squad will also tune in to today's triple-header from their digs in Adelaide where they will remain until the date, venue and opponent for their first finals fixture is known.

As it stands, the Thunder are all-but assured of finishing third. Mathematically it's possible the Hurricanes could leapfrog them into third place if they claim all four points on offer against the Renegades this afternoon, but would need to do so by a ludicrous margin to lift their current net run rate (-0.159) to above the Thunder's 0.949.

Should they hold on to third place after today's games, the Thunder will host the winner of the Eliminator final (between teams finishing fourth and fifth) in a Knock-Out final next Sunday.

"We'll watch those games closely just to get a bit of a read for how those sides are going and what they're looking at producing in the finals," said Ferguson, with the Thunder's 'home' finals expected to be staged in Canberra due to COVID-related travel restrictions.

"We'd love to get some finals out at Sydney Olympic Park, our fans are desperate for it and we'd love to see them out there.

"But if not there we'd love to get to Manuka (in Canberra), we get really well supported there and it's a second home for us."

Ferguson's also unclear on whether Thunder allrounder Daniel Sams will be fit for the start of the finals campaign after injuring his right hand in a fielding mishap earlier this month.

It was initially hoped the injury would sideline the left-arm seamer, whose batting has reached new heights in BBL|10, for the final three games of the regular season but would enable him to return for the finals.

However, Ferguson claimed there was no guarantee the 28-year-old – who made his Australia debut in this summer's Dettol T20I series against India – would be fit for the first playoff.

"He's certainly starting to show really promising signs," Ferguson said last night.

"From what our staff are saying, he's a real chance to play which would be exciting for us because he'd be a huge lift.

"He's been in fantastic form the last couple of years and his batting has come on in leaps and bounds this year.

"He's a three-string weapon for us – he's great in the field, with bat and ball."

Ferguson also believes the Thunder are hitting the straps at the right time of the season after suffering a late-season lull, in which they lost four games out of five after being an early pacesetter in BBL|10.

The form of Hales – who last night broke Marcus Stoinis's record (28) for the most sixes in a BBL season with the new benchmark now 30 – at the top of the order had added a new dimension to the team's batting to complement their already versatile bowling attack.

Hales extended his lead as the BKT Golden Bat leading runs scorer for BBL|10, a title he claimed in scoring 110 against the Sixers last week, and his exploits have brought calls for a recall to the England T20 team having been axed for off-field reasons in 2019.

"We were really keen to get him across a couple of years ago, and it's paid off big time," Ferguson said of Hales.

"I played with him a couple of years ago at the (Adelaide) Strikers, and played against him.

"He's good friends with (Sydney Sixers allrounder) Dan Christian who I'm close with as well, they played at Notts together so we knew he was a good character.

"He'd obviously had a rough trot leading into that and he was really keen to prove a point, to prove a few people wrong and he's done that and then some over the last two years for us.

"I'm really, really pleased for him and it's great for our young players to see a guy play great conventional cricket shots but put bowlers under enormous pressure.

"We've been in just about every game throughout the tournament.

"Even when we've lost, we've lost close and then we've had a couple of really close wins which good sides do.

"I feel like, from a consistency point of view, we've never really had a stinker at any point.

"Our losses have been tight, and when we've played well, we've won by a fair bit.

"So we think we've learned our lessons and we're peaking at the right time."