Tumbling Sixers in batsmen build-up

THE Sydney Sixers will add an extra batsman to beef up their line-up for Friday’s Big Bash semi-final away to the Melbourne Renegades, after their catastrophic collapse against the Stars cost the chance of hosting the playoff.

The Sixers tumbled from second to third place on the table in less than two hours of complete carnage when they were bowled out for just 74 after they gambled by playing one less batsmen.

With all-rounder Tom Curran unavailable for the playoffs after leaving Australia to join England in the Caribbean, coach Greg Shipperd wants to add more depth to the batting stocks in the expectation that runs will be at a premium at the notoriously slow Marvel Stadium pitch.

“We probably need to bring another batter into the mix,” Shipperd said.

“We’ll have a slight restructure anyway with Tom leaving but instead of going with the six bowlers option, we’ll probably go with five and have the extra batsman.”

The Sixers batsmen will all be doing extra work in the nets this week after the middle and lower order appeared rusty after getting little time at the crease in recent matches because the top order had been making enough runs.

“Perhaps we went a bit too hard too early from a batting point of view and we had no performance leadership in terms that no one made a big score, so we’ll be looking to put in a lot of work this week,” Shipperd said.