Season 11, Round 7 Predictons by LE Schaw Sticky Wickets vs Pumas Following their defeat to the Ravens this week, the Stickies remain the only team in the competition to be without a win, picking up their only first innings points against the Allstars last week. Next week, they play host to the Pumas, who have been in great form this season. Players to watch: DG Speirs will be disappointed with what he has given to his club so far this season, averaging only 20.90 with the bat. However, we believe this will only drive him to do even better and he is due for a big game. AJ Son will be making his return to Bannerman Shield cricket following the injury to opener JE Harding. Top run scorer so far in the Avo Lovers Cup season, he is perhaps the part of this match the crowd will be most looking forward to. Our prediction: Pumas will end up being too strong for the Stickies. 10 points for the visitors. Ravens vs Crusaders The two sides met at crossroads this week with the Ravens having their worst game to end their five game slump and finally secure a win against the Stickies while the Crusaders had one of the worst innings ever with a woeful 62 all out against the Vipers. Players to watch: RG Cribb had a pretty mediocre season up to this week's game against the Stickies, but he made up for it by leading his team with 347 runs in the first innings. He then followed this up with an incredible 13 wickets for NSW City against New Zealand. The Crusaders tail should prove to be no problem for him in front of the fans at home. SB Wilson, like Cribb had been in some of the worst form of his career , which even sparked suggestions that JJ Ritchie was the best bowler at the Crusaders, but in a miserable game against the Vipers this week Wilson was the only one of the side who could take heart in his efforts with an 11 wicket match. Our prediction: The Ravens may not be doing as well as first expected, but their opponents will be the Crusaders, so 10 points should be going their way. Allstars vs Cyclones The Allstars will be disappointed with their effort against the Pumas this week and will be looking to bounce back next week as they take on fifth place Cyclones. On the other hand, the Cyclones have defeated opponents such as the Ravens and Gamblers and will want to add the Allstars onto their list of slain giants. Players to watch: In a team full of big name players, HT Davis has managed to find his rhythm with the best season so far in his career. He has shared some wickets with HG Emm and AD Funkotron, but he has still managed to perform fairly consistently so far. S Verigotta has had mostly ups and a few downs this season, but so far it has seemed like his team can rely on him to perform should the rest of his team fail. He is averaging an impressive 80.78 in the Bannerman Shield this season and will have to be on his best form if he wants to keep it like that this against the Allstars. Our prediction: It is hard to see the Allstars batsmen not taking advantage of the weak Cyclones attack. However, taking two points off them is not impossible for the underdogs. Stingrays vs Gamblers Fourth travels to sixth here in probably the closest match next week. The Gamblers are fresh off a bye but the home team Stingrays struggled to contain the Cyclones batsmen this week. The Gamblers are going to fancy their chances against this team that has only had wins against the Stickies and Crusaders, in their own bid to push into the top three. Players to watch: SM Morgan has surprised many with arguably the best start of any player in the competition. He currently leads the run scoring table with 807 runs at an average of 89.67, including four centuries. The Stingrays will undoubtedly look to him again to put them ahead of their opponents next week. BJ Taylor took 9 wickets in the first innings against the Crusaders last week before their bye and while some could argue it barely counts given the competition, the fact is he has been performing consistently this season. He will likely do the same against the Rays. Our prediction: If the Stingrays wins the toss and the Gamblers fail to shut Morgan down, the home team is probably the most likely to upset the favourites next week. Stingrays with the win.
I see. Wait until Vipers have a bye so that the match up is at least close to even enough to talk about.
