BBL Fantasy: Round Six Review and Round Seven Preview

It’s the second last round before finals and this round, there are five BBL games squeezed into three days meaning you won’t have much time to prepare for the rolling lockout. Game one starts at 4pm today!

Stepping Up

What we saw in round six was almost a changing of the guard. With a lot of popular BBL Fantasy players now in the ODI squad and unavailable, it was the likes of Travis Head, Cameron Bancroft, Ashton Agar and James Pierson that stepped up and produced great scores. A lot of the Melbourne Stars boys also impressed in their double game round with Luke Wright collecting a massive 127 points. It’s time to ditch the remaining players in your team from the ODI squad and a lot of these younger guys, who’ll be given bigger roles, are your best options as far as replacements go.

The Player of the Tournament So Far

The Sydney Thunder have been incredibly impressive in this tournament to date and a lot of credit for that has to go to Andre Russell. From a BBL perspective, Russell is averaging 81 points per game, miles ahead of anyone else to have played every game so far in this tournament. The scary part is he hasn’t really fired with the bat. It’s been his bowling that has done the damage. Russell is now $125,200, the most expensive player in the competition and is the clear favourite to by the player of the tournament.

Hurricanes Double Up

The Hobart Hurricanes have the double game round in round seven, with their first match taking place in a matter of hours against the Perth Scorchers down in Tasmania. If you’re going to lock the captaincy on one of their players, make your decision soon because the match is not far away. The Melbourne Stars have the bye again this week. That actually reverses in round eight with the Hurricanes having the bye and the Stars having another double game round. Yes, the fixture is weird.

Nic’s Captain’s

Ok, somehow I’ve actually been pretty good at this in BBL05 and I will take full credit for your successes, but for now let’s look at whom to place the ‘C’ on this week!

1. Andre Russell: I don’t know what more to say about the guy, the Renegades’ weakened line-up should prove easy fodder for Russell.
2. Kumar Sangakkara: The Hobart Hurricanes have two games this week and it’s fair to assume that Kumar will score well in at least one of them. He’s a safe option… unless he gets given out caught off his pads for a third time in this tournament…
3. Tim Paine: The Hurricanes captain has been one of their better players all tournament and is a great option in this double game round.
4. Dwayne Bravo: Bravo continues to prove just how reliable he is in this tournament. Another big score last week and an average of 52 for the tournament shows this man is always a good pick.
5. Dan Christian: Christian is another Hurricanes player that has impressed all tournament and should be a lock for a big score this round.

Smokie: My smokie for this round is Michael Lumb. The Sixers return from two rounds of byes and come up against the Brisbane Heat. Lumb, who’s been in great form, could tear their bowling apart.

Good luck this round!