BBL 11 | Marsh-powered Scorchers demolish Hurricanes, gather third victory in a row

Perth Scorchers registered their third consecutive win in the Big Bash League 2021 after defeating Hobart Hurricanes by a huge margin of 53 runs at the Blundstone Arena in Hobart. The victory took them to pole position in the points table where they have 10 points from three matches. Mitchell Marsh was the hero for the Scorchers as he brought up his first-ever BBL century in the league’s 11-year-old history. It was mainly due to his hundred that Perth were able to get to such a huge total of 182 runs.

As far as the bowling is concerned, Tymal Mills was at the top of his game for the Hurricanes as he took three wickets including those of Caleb Jewell, Ben McDermott and Nathan Ellis to bling the chase of the Hobart team. The chase of 183, difficult in its own way, become more difficult as it actually never got going with Hurricanes skipper Matthew Wade getting out in the very first over.

Jewell followed suit in the very next over, declining any sort of platform for the latter batters to cash upon. However, a 69-run partnership developed between D’Arcy Short and McDermott to give Hurricanes some sort of hope. However, Mills came back and removed McDermott and in the very next over the Hurricanes’ English import Harry Brook got out for one run.

From there on, it was all formalities as the wickets kept falling at regular intervals for the Hurricanes and they were eventually bowled out for 129 in the 19th over.

Earlier in the evening, after winning the toss and deciding to bat first, Scorchers didn’t really have a good start as they lost Colin Munro, the centurion from the previous game for nought and by the beginning of the sixth over, they were 40-3. Mitchell Marsh tried to build a partnership with skipper Ashton Turner, but it was also broken at the end of the 10th over and Scorchers were 74-4.

However, what unfolded after that was pure magic from Marsh as he struck 33 runs off his last 10 balls and along with Laurie Evans, took the team to 182. The Scorchers scored 57 runs in the last four overs.

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BBL 11 | Mitchell Marsh hits his maiden Big Bash hundred

The T20 World Cup start for Australia finally struck gold in the Biga Bash League in his fourth match of the season as he scored a scintillating hundred against Hobart Hurricanes at the Blundstone Arena in Hobart. The hundred came on the fifth ball of the 20th over of the Perth Scorchers innings as Marsh took only a single to complete his first century in his 11-year long career as well as the history of the league. It never looked like it was going to be a hundred initially when he came on to bat and the way he was miscuing the shots. Batting at number three and coming on to bat in only the first over itself after the fall of the wicket of last match centurion Colin Munro, Marsh started getting into the groove but kept on losing partners at the other end. In the 13th over, he brought out his fifty off 37 balls when the team score was 97-4. This was after the team has fallen to 75-4 and Marsh has started to build the partnership with Laurie Evans. The partnership went on for 67 runs and it came in just 45 balls. Till that time, Marsh has reached 67 off 50 balls. But it was only after that Marsh exploded and scored 33 off the next 10 balls. Thanks to his hundred, Scorchers, who were once at 74-4, were able to get to 182-5 in the 20 overs. As far as the match is concerned, Hurricanes are 67-2, needing 116 to win from 66 balls.

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Rishabh Pant, Ajinkya Rahane get valuable insights from Vinod Kambli ahead of SA tour

Former India batter Vinod Kambli was seen sharing some batting tips with Ajinkya Rahane and Rishabh Pant ahead of the South Africa tour. Kambli took to Twitter and posted, "Was a pleasure to help Ajinkya & Rishabh train for the upcoming South Africa series. Shared some valuable insights with them about the SA conditions. My best wishes to them for SAvIND series. P.S. Christiano got some lessons as well.” India are slated to travel to South Africa for three Tests and as many ODIs. The Test series will begin on December 26 in Centurion. Earlier, the selectors had announced the squad for the fixtures and Rahane was axed from his post of the Test vice-captain. Rohit Sharma who replaced Virat Kohli as the limited-overs captain was also handed over the vice-captaincy in Tests, however as things stand at the moment, Sharma will be missing out on the entire Test series with a hamstring injury. The selectors are yet to take a call on handing over the vice-captaincy after Sharma was ruled out. This would also be Rahul Dravid’s first overseas assignment after taking up the role as the full time coach of the Indian team. Dravid began his stint with the T20I series against New Zealand which was followed by a two-Test series. The hosts clinched a whitewash win in the T20Is while winning the Test series 1-0.

The Ashes | Travis Head reflects on preparation to combat round the wicket bowling after Gabba heist

It was argued that Australia had some selection conundrums leading up to the Ashes series at home but on the face of it, they did not have any contentious selection issue to deal with after they picked Alex Carey to replace Tim Paine as the wicketkeeper-batsman except for the number five position in batting. The debate has largely been centred around Travis Head and whether he deserves to bat at number five for Australia in Test cricket and the theme was not at all different this time. He was in the form before joining the Australia Test squad but so was Usman Khwaja, who was giving him tough competition for that spot, at least from the outset. However, Head was always a run-getter at the Sheffield Shield level but could not unlock his potential at the highest level. Thankfully, for him to start with, Australia picked him over Khwaja and for the side, he hammered England bowling attack to all parts of the Gabba to quash all the murmurs surrounding his candidature once for all. His downhill curve began in the last Ashes series when Stuart Broad ripped open all the faultlines in his batting by exploiting the bowling friendly conditions and round the wicket angle. He got him out for fun bowling round the wicket and making a mockery of his inability to combat the threat that was apparent and inevitable. He did not have a great Ashes series and thankfully for Australia, Steve Smith was in Don Bradmanesque form and the bowling attack was well oiled to rescue them in almost every game and they got away retaining the Ashes. There was no end to that round the wicket trouble for Head even after returning to his home soil as Jasprit Bumrah and Ajinkya Rahane exploited the same shortcomings at the MCG to hurt Australia when he looked set for a big score. The crisis was deepening and as runs dried up, he found his name out of the squad for the last two Tests against India last summer that led to discussions and debates over his place in the side for the Ashes series. He went away from the limelight and worked on his technique while facing right-handed pacers bowling from round the wicket after a period when he was “found out” by bowlers from that angle. He said that the century in the Gabba Test was the result of the relentless and focused hard work he did to line himself up for round the wicket angle of attack. England also offered him and his teammate, David Warner, a big relief by not playing Stuart Broad who had a wood against them but Head concedes the problem was bigger than facing only Broad and that he struggled in general with that line of attack. “Not just from Broady, but I think in general from bowling around the wicket,” Head said in Adelaide. “Personally, I’ve worked really hard on batting against bowling around the wicket. We got found out a little bit in England, personally and maybe as a team. I know from my personal experience over the last sort of six months, I’ve gone away and worked really hard at that, how to line the ball up. “I didn’t change it just for this Test match. I think it’s been what I’ve been doing since probably Christmas last year. So, I’ve had the back end of the summer and feel like that has been going on for over 12 months now. So I guess since missing out in the Test series last year, I went away and worked on a few things that are so minor. You wouldn’t probably even get to pick them up though, it’s that minor.” Having won the confidence of the new skipper in the form of Pat Cummins and Justin Langer, Head too attack the England bowling lineup and produced an 85-ball century to stamp his authority on the game. If he remains in the form and bats the way he did at the Gabba in the next four Tests of the series, Australia are only going to get stronger and England’s resolve will be tested with every spell of such counterattacks that he launched on the opposition.