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Bbl Sixers Vs Strikers Sixers Way Too Superior For The Strikers

BBL | Sixers vs Strikers: Sixers way too superior for the Strikers

It turned out to be an utterly dominating performance from the Sydney Sixers as they eased past the Adelaide Strikers by 38 runs in the 11th match of BBL 10 and registered their second victory of the tournament in three games. After a poor start in the batting department, it was Dan Christian who turned the match on its head as the Sixers scored 116 from the last 8 overs. The Strikers started off in a scintillating fashion in the powerplay as they raced off to 51 in the first overs. However, the Strikers lost their way after losing the first wicket and there was no way back from there. Wickets kept tumbling and in the end, the Strikers fell well short of the victory target.

Earlier in the day, it was the Adelaide Strikers who won the toss and opted to field. The pitch at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart yet again had some life for the fast bowlers and the Strikers used it to good effect. The pace bowling trio of Peter Siddle, Wes Agar, and Daniel Worrall was quite exceptional with the new ball and the Sydney Sixers were under the pump from the outset.

All the top-3 batters - Josh Philippe, Jack Edwards, and James Vince never really managed to get going as they were consistently beaten by some exceptional swing bowling, from Daniel Worrall in particular. It was a sight to behold as the fast bowlers came running in and the lateral movement which was on offer never really allowed the Sixers to get settled at the crease.

Philippe was the first to go as an attempted ramp shot ended up in the hands of the keeper. Two more wickets fell in quick succession and the Sixers were falling behind the game. It was in the 13^th over that Daniel Christian turned the complexion of the game with some lusty power hitting. He struck 22 runs in the 13^th over which was studded with a couple of fours and sixes each and it looked like he was batting on a totally different pitch.

There was no respite for the great Rashid Khan as well and he was plundered for a couple of sixes as Christian completed his half-century in just 15 deliveries, the 2^nd fastest half-century in BBL history. Just after completing his fifty, he held out in the deep off the bowling of Wes Agar.

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However, that innings was enough to help them claw their way back into the match and was supported quite brilliantly by Daniel Hughes. He held the innings together and smashed a few lusty blows in the final few overs. Jason Holder and Jordan Silk chipped in with crucial knocks in the final two overs as the Sixers posted a more than competitive 177 on the board in their allotted 20 overs.

The target of 178 was always going to be a challenging one for the Strikers. They needed a great start and that was provided by the opening duo of Philip Salt and Jack Weatherald. Right from the outset, Salt and Weatherald kept whacking the bowlers all around the park and raced off to a 50-run partnership in just four overs. The Adelaide Strikers’ bowlers were well and truly under pressure but the wicket of Philip Salt opened the floodgates and there was a procession from thereon.

Yet again it was Dan Christian who started the procession, this time with the ball in hand. Soon wickets kept tumbling one after the other as Ben Manenti joined the fun and took two quick ones in the form of Jack Weatherald and Matt Renshaw. Captain Alex Carey couldn’t get going either and was castled by a beautiful inswinger from Carlos Brathwaite.

Steve O'Keeffe also joined in the act and got himself into the wickets column with the scalp of Matthew Short. The equation from there on was way too much for the Strikers. Jonathan Wells and Liam Scott occupied the crease for a while but the big shots weren’t coming and the pressure kept mounting. Eventually, Scott was dismissed by Keefe in the 16th over as the Strikers needed 69 to win from the last 4 and it was always going to be an uphill task from there.

Wells and Rashid Khan tried valiantly but the target was way too much in the end and they were unable to execute the big shots. Rashid was dismissed in the final over when the match was already done and dusted. Some exceptional bowling by the Sixers in the middle and the late overs eventually propelled them to an utterly comprehensive victory in the end.

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NZ vs PAK 2nd T20: Williamson, Seifert lead Blackcaps to series win after Hafeez's heroics

A valiant effort with the bat from Mhammed Hafiz was enough for the touring Pakistan side as an unbeaten partnership for the second wicket between Kane Williamson and Tim Seifert guided Blackcaps to an unassailable 2-0 lead in Hamilton. Chasing a modest target of 164 at the Seddon Park, the Blackcaps were off to a rapid start as Martin Guptill looked like turning back the clock to the time when he was batting and big shots were coming off sweetly off his bat over long-off. He started to time the ball brilliantly from the second over and took 12 runs off Haris Rauf through a big six and a boundary. He hit another big one off Faheem Ashraf in his first over but the all-rounder was smart enough to change the pace of the ball and flummoxed Guptill in to play pull shot too early. The next man in was the returning skipper Kane Williamson who had come back after becoming a father and he brought his biggest skill-calmness on the field for the home side. On the other hand, Tim Seifert was going all guns blazing as the Kiwis reached a middling total of 45/1 at the end of the powerplay. The tourists would have hoped for a controlled phase of play after the field restriction was lifted but Seifert had other plans in his mind. He took Wahab Riaz for three sixes and whatever the control Shadab Khan-led side had till that moment was gone in a jiffy. With 19 runs off the seventh over, Kiwis were up and running and the run rate came back under control. They needed both Williamson and Siefert to not throw their wickets away and they were not in any mood to do so. Williamson was batting in his usual touch and all the balls he could afford to guide towards the third man boundary were guided for four from the position just under his eyes in his signatory ways. Williamson reached his fifty in 37 balls, although he was slowed down after a brief period of time after reaching 49 runs with the bat. While Seifert had no mercy on the Pakistani bowlers and kept on plundering them on loose balls as he reached his second consecutive fifty in just 32 balls. His onslaught only got better as he kept on finding boundaries and in the end, the hosts were proven too good for the touring Pakistan team and the target was achieved in the last over with unbelievable ease. Earlier, Pakistan captain Shadab Khan won the toss and elected to bat first and utilise the good pitch at the Seddon Park. Pakistan openers Mohammed Rizwan and Haider Ali started with a bang and the much famous pair of Tim Southee and Trent Boult were attacked in the first two overs. But soon enough, they were given a reality check by the Kiwi new ball pair and they found movement in the air to check the touring batsmen. Haider Ali was the first man to go after he tried to take on Southee and the pacer held on to his nerve and backed his skills to hit the length that troubled Ali while attempting to go over the top. The next man in, Abdullah Shafique, could not match the skills to ride on the bounce Southee was generating and ended up getting out in a much embarrassing fashion. Southee was top through the top of his rhythm and he started to swing the ball and took a Test match like field placings with slips and gully. Williamson persisted with Southee with the amount of swing he was able to extract and the move paid dividend when Rizwan edged one through to the keeper Seifert while attempting to drive an away going delivery of Southee that was reminiscent of Kiwis’ bowling in Test cricket. Mohammed Hafiz, who has been growing like an old wine (in T20s), came to bat at the number four position and got off to a decent start with two back to back boundaries of Kyle Jamieson. He continued his boundary hitting streak against Scott Kuggeleijn and was keeping Pakistan in the game albeit wickets had fallen at the other end. The old nemesis of Pakistan’s batsmen on the tour so far was evident today as well as James Neesham got the better of Shadab Khan with a ball that bounced more than Pakistan’s skipper may have expected. Wickets kept tumbling at the other end, but an unfazed Hafeez was on the money and was keeping Pakistan in pursuit of a big score in Hamilton. Khushdil Shah who came to bat at the number six position found it extremely tough to get going and it was putting a lot of pressure on Hafeez to go for big shots as well keeping his wickets intact with no better batsmen remaining in the pavilion to rescue the side. In the process of a masterful T20 inning, Hafeez surpassed Shoaib Malik to become the best Pakistan batsman in the shortest format. He stamped his authority by depositing Kuggleijn for two back-to-back sixes to reach a much-deserved fifty that Pakistan badly needed to stay in the contest. There was no stopping Hafeez as every form of bowling, from the leg-spin of Ish Sodhi to left-arm pace of Trent Boult were taken to the cleaners. He needed 18 runs in the last over of the innings to be bowled by Jamieson, and he got stuck into the young man, but could not quite complete a century he richly deserved for single-handedly taking Pakistan to a total which the bowlers could have hoped of defending from a situation of doom and gloom for the tourists. Pakistan were without Babar Azam for the T20 series and the effect was telling on the level of performance of the Pakistan team as New Zealand took full toll of their problems and shortcoming and handed out a massive drubbing in the format Pakistan were expected to put up a great fight.

Pakistan's A team registers strong win against New Zealand A

Pakistan Shaheens, or as they would more informally be called, Pakistan A, registered a morale-boosting win over New Zealand A in the one-off unofficial Test at Whangerei on Sunday. Chasing a target of 298, the home side was bowled out for 226, losing by a margin of 89 runs. For the Shaheens, three wickets each were picked up by pacers Naseem Shah and Amad Butt while Yasir Shah, the leading leg-spinner in Test cricket today, took a couple. One wicket each went into the account of seamers Mohammad Abbas and Sohail Khan. The day started with Pakistan's second-string side, at least nominally, at 318/9 and leading by 286 runs. The pair of Naseem Shah and Mohammad Abbas added 11 runs more to the total before Matt Henry wrapped up the innings at 329, picking up his sixth wicket of the innings. The Kiwi seamer ended up with figures of 6/53. In response, no New Zealand A batsman could score even a half century. The highest scorer in the innings was Nathan Smith with 45. Captain Michael Bracewell and Joe Carter scored 30 each in the middle order. This loss for New Zealand A came after their emphatic 2-0 triump over West Indies A in the previous unofficial Test series. But this loss won't hurt that much because the Pakistan team was stacked with regular members of the main Test squad of the country. The batting line-up consisted of batsmen such as Shan Masood, Azhar Ali, Abid Ali, Fawad Alam - all part of the Test set up. The bowling line-up also included Test bowlers like Mohammad Abbas, Yasir Shah, and Naseem Shah. The biggest takeaway from this match would be the century by Fawad Alam. An enigmatic player who has been in and out of the Pakistan team's set up and treated unfairly by selectors very often, he laid another strong claim to a spot in the Test team. Since he played in the team's last series, in England, he should get reselected. For the hosts, the form of Matt Henry is encouraging. New Zealand have a top class bowling line-up with Tim Southee and Trent Boult forming, one of the best bowling duos in the world. They are backed up by the indefatigable Neil Wagner and prodigious young talent Kyle Jamieson. But Henry, who has been a regular member of the ODI team, has made the selectors take note of him and may be the back-up for either Southee or Boult, if they miss any of the matches.

Sunil Gavaskar urges BCCI to send Ishant Sharma on next flight to Australia

There were more troubles for the touring Indian team on the third day of the Adelaide Test when they were bowled out to their lowest total in their history of Test cricket. Other than the carnage they had to swallow at the hands of Australian bowlers, Indians were struck dearly when one of their premiere pacer, Mohammed Shami was hit on his right wrist while batting. Shami looked in severe pain and at the end of the match, captain Virat Kohli had said that Shami could not even lift his hand due to pain. The right-arm pacer was taken to hospital for a scan and as per a report by news agency ANI, Shami has suffered a fracture of his wrist, and subsequently has been ruled out of the remainder of the series. The injury to Shami will be a huge blow to Indian team which is already without the first choice players in Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma while Kohli will be returning home and won't take part further in the series. Former Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar, who is in Australia to call on the game for the host broadcaster Channel 7, said that in absence of Shami and Ishant, Indian bowling department looks toothless and they won’t be able to challenge the Australian batting line up over the next three tests. Fearing the worst for the Indian team, Gavaskar has suggested that Ishant should be sent to Australia on the next flight if he is fit enough to bowl 20 overs in a day. “If Ishant Sharma is fit, I am suggesting to send him to Australia now. If he is capable of bowling 20 overs in a day, the management should send him to Australia on tomorrow’s flight so that he can be ready for the Sydney Test,” Gavaskar said. He urged the Indian selectors and the BCCI to address the issue as quickly as possible in order to make Ishant available to play in the Sydney Test, scheduled to start on January 07, as there no quality pacers in Australia to back up with performances on the level of Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami. He pointed out that although one of the backup steamer-- Navdeep Saini has the potential to succeed at the international level, he is not in rhythm to leave impact against Australia based on his bowling in the tour game against Australia A. “I am saying India should look at taking a chance because there is no proper back-up now. Navdeep Saini has the potential to pick wickets but the way he bowled in the warm-up matches, it doesn’t look like he will be able to trouble the Australia batsmen,” he further said.

AUS vs IND: Ricky Ponting rings alarm bells, says tough for India to avoid 4-0

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has predicted a very hard time for the Indian team going forward in the four-match Test series after the hosts squandered all the advantage in the first test and lost the game after being dismissed on their historically lowest score. He has said that a clean sweep is looming large on the Indian team which has many holes to plug in a very short period of time, while the Australians will keep coming at them with their best. Ponting, who is also on the commentary panel of Channel 7 for the Australia-India series, said that the home side was able to open the old wounds in the Indian team and that they would need special performances from players to turn things around. He pointed out that the next test scheduled to start on December 26 in Melbourne holds the key for India’s resurgence in the series, as one more loss would really dent the confidence in the tourists’ camps and the Australians would not let them off the hook after that point. He "Now there are some serious wounds opened up. There could be a good chance (of a sweep). Let's hope we do get a result in Melbourne and if we do, I think India's going to find it really hard to bounce back and win a game,” Ponting told cricket.com.au. It’s not easy for teams, especially with so many inexperienced players like India have at the moment, to recover quickly from such a humiliation they got at the hands of Australia, but Ponting believes that how they will cope up to the debacle and come back at the MCG would tell a lot about their mental fortitude. He outlined the absence of Virat Kohli as another crucial factor that would halt the progress towards recovery from such a bad performance with the bat. “We'll learn a lot about them, won't we? With Kohli not being there as well there's almost no-one to pick them back up after a loss like that,” Ponting added in his post-match remarks to cricket.com.au. Ricky Ponting called for bringing more cushioning into the batting order of the tourists and batted for the return of Rishabh Pant who was excellent with the bat, in the last series down under. He also raised the point on Prithvi Shaw’s place in the playing XI at the top of the order, but said that the leadership group of the Indian team which would now be led by Ajinkya Rahane will have to work hard on lifting the spirits of the players, and just changing the playing XI would not solve that puzzle immediately as the Ausyralians who have exposed chink their armour would not be giving up on exploiting it against at the MCG and other tests that will follow in the next year. "They've got to make a couple of changes. Rishabh Pant has to be in that middle order. With Kohli not being there they've got to strengthen their batting, he's got to come in. "They'll look at Prithvi Shaw at the top of the order I'm sure but there's one thing to make selection changes there's another to lift the spirits back up again and make sure they're mentally right for the next challenge because the Australians are not going to go away now,” Ponting added. Australia, too, will have some selection headaches, but those will be due to the return of their first-choice player in David Warner and Ponting said that the hosts will have a lot less to be worried about while the tourists have a lot of aspects to ponder before the second test begins on December 26. Emerging talent Will Pucovski is likely to be fit for the second test, but Ponting believes he will have to wait as Joe Burns has earned another chance to secure his place by hitting a fifty in the winning cause in the second innings of the first test. With the return of Warner, Matthew Wade, who was shifted to open in Adelaide will return to the middle order, but that will be a tricky call for the home side as Cameron Green has looked sharp with the ball and has done nothing wrong to lose out his spot in the next test. If David's fit he comes straight back in … they've got a decision to make then on (Cameron) Green and (Matthew) Wade. That's the only obvious thing there. If both Pucovski and Warner are fit I think Will will have to wait again. On the back of Burns getting fifty they've got to keep going with him, that's the right call and that's fair enough,” Ponting added. India’s stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane will have a lot to ponder as both Kohli and Shami will head back home. Shami’s injury may well prove to be an excruciating one for the men in blue as they are already without Ishant Sharma in Australia and now all their bowling resources and responsibilities lie on the shoulders of Jasprit Bumrah.