CANES SWEAT ON QUICK
THE Hurricanes are confident strike weapon Riley Meredith will be back for their next game as Hobart looks to halt a form dip.
Hobart’s 39-run loss to the Thunder on Thursday night in Perth was its second straight loss and came after express quick Meredith was forced to sit out the game due to rib soreness.
However, Hurricanes coach Adam Griffith said Meredith should be back to give Hobart’s attack a cutting edge for the clash against the Scorchers in Perth on Tuesday.
“He’s fallen on his ribs a couple of times — the first game up in Brisbane he went over on it and when he was diving in batting he went over on it again, so he has a bit of a bruise there,” Griffiths said.
“We got in from midnight last night from Tassie and he just didn’t pull up.
“He got through all of his stuff this morning. But in the warm-up when he was trying to go flat chat, he was no good.”
But it is the form with the bat that is of concern, especially the continued struggles of opener D’Arcy Short, who fell for 19.
His biggest score in his past seven innings is just 27. And if you take away the 72 he belted against the Adelaide Strikers off just 48 balls earlier in the tournament, he has scored just 69 runs in eight innings at an average of only 8.62.
But Hobart won’t entertain thoughts of dropping Short down the order, or resting him.
Griffith said he was confident Short would turn things around.
“Every bat is concerned when they don’t make runs for a few knocks in a row,” Griffith said after the loss.
“We have the utmost faith in D’Arcy and best spot for him is up the top.
“He was hitting them OK today before he got out.
“It’s there — we actually think he is hitting them really well. He just has to spend a bit more time at the crease.
“You can’t keep him out of the contest — obviously with the ball today he was outstanding.”
Short was actually in contention for man-of-the-match honours on Thursday. He had figures of 3-15 from his first three overs of left-arm orthodox spin, removing Sydney Thunder openers Alex Hales and Usman Khawaja and Sam Billings. He finished with 3-26 from four overs.
Despite losing two consecutive games, the Hurricanes remain third on the BBL table. They would be sitting on top if they’d won on Thursday.
And that’s with Short in poor form.
The left-hander is one of the all-time stars of the competition, having scored 1905 runs at an average of 40.53.
In the past three seasons, he has scored 357 runs at 44.62, 637 at 67.62 and 572 at 57.20. His highest Big Bash score is an unbeaten 122.
If he finds form, the Hurricanes will be tough to beat.