Strikers won’t take riled rivals lightly

IT looks like a walk in the park on paper but Adelaide Strikers are bracing themselves for fireworks from BBL cellar-dwellers Melbourne Renegades at Adelaide Oval on Friday.

While the Renegades are riding a seven-match losing streak, are coming off a 60-run thrashing by the Strikers and will again be without key batsmen Shaun Marsh (personal reasons) and Rilee Rossouw (hamstring), Adelaide coach Jason Gillespie has warned his men to be wary of a wounded outfit which is virtually out of finals contention at the halfway mark of the competition.

“We spoke about it as a group, that we are playing a team that really has nothing to lose now,’’ said Strikers paceman Wes Agar, who before last night's matches held the title of BBL “Golden Arm’’ with 14 wickets from eight games.

“They are a team we have to be wary about because they captain Alex Carey to tell Renshaw to calm down. The incident set the scene for what could be a feisty rematch.

“You can always expect there to be some fire but especially after what happened the other night,’’ Agar said.

“I’ll leave that for those boys to sort out, I tend to steer clear of that stuff, but it’s Big Bash time and there’s big crowds around so the boys get fired up.

“In the heat of the moment you can get into it and that’s what happened.’’

The Strikers (4-4) rode a game-changing, 96-run partnership off 52 balls from middle-order batsmen Jake Weatherald (51 off 25 deliveries) and Ryan Gibson (43 not out off 31) to victory as they compiled their highest score of the campaign.

“With our bowling attack it’s very hard to chase down that sort of score,’’ Weatherald said. “We have the best and most even bowling group in the competition.”