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Sri Lanka have lost each of their last five T20Is, but they are up against an Indian side without Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar

The Preview by Karthik Krishnaswamy19-Dec-20172:37

Dasgupta: Good time for India to test youngsters

Big Picture

India haven’t lost a bilateral series in any format in 2017, but that’s only if you discount the one-off T20I against West Indies in Kingston, where an Evin Lewis century blew them away. A 6-4 T20 record this year would suggest this Indian side is at its most vulnerable in the shortest format. Sri Lanka, having let slip a few chances to push India harder than they did in the ODIs, should therefore allow themselves to feel just a bit more hopeful than they otherwise might when they line up for the first T20I in Cuttack.This, moreover, is an Indian T20 side without Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan or Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and with a long list of unproven names. Between them, Basil Thampi, Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar and Mohammed Siraj have played a total of two international games, while Shreyas Iyer only made his India debut in November, and Jaydev Unadkat has played nine games across formats since his debut in December 2010.Sri Lanka will look at those names and tell themselves they have a more-than-realistic chance of winning this series. There’s just one hurdle they’ll have to cross if they are to do so, however; they have lost each of their last five T20 games.

Form guide

India WLWLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka LLLLL

In the spotlight

After a low score in seaming conditions in Dharamsala, Shreyas Iyer scored breezy, innovative half-centuries in the second and third ODIs, and didn’t look anything like a batsman playing his debut series in the format. If he transfers that confidence and that ability to manipulate the opposition’s fields into the T20 format as well, India might be closer than ever to solving their long-term middle-order issues in limited-overs cricket.During the ODI series, it was hard to tell if Danushka Gunathilaka was in form or not. He scored 1, 16 and 13, and was out all three times to Jasprit Bumrah, twice while attempting over-ambitious shots. He might need to temper his approach in the 50-overs game, but it might serve him well if he continues to go for his shots in the T20I series.

Team news

Having missed out on ODI selection, KL Rahul returns for the T20Is, and should return in his natural role at the top of the order, alongside Rohit Sharma. With Bhuvneshwar Kumar rested, India will have to choose between Thampi, Siraj and Unadkat to partner Jasprit Bumrah in the seam attack.India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 KL Rahul, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Dinesh Karthik, 5 Manish Pandey, 6 MS Dhoni (wk), 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Jaydev Unadkat/Mohammed Siraj/Basil Thampi, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal.A number of senior players have returned to Sri Lanka’s squad after sitting out the T20Is against Pakistan. Their line-up should closely resemble the one that played the ODIs, by and large, but without Suranga Lakmal, they will have to choose between the pace and bounce of Dushmantha Chameera and the left-arm swing of Vishwa Fernando to partner Nuwan Pradeep with the new ball.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Danushka Gunathilaka, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Sadeera Samarawickrama/Kusal Perera, 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 6 Asela Gunaratne, 7 Thisara Perera (capt), 8 Sachith Pathirana, 9 Akila Dananjaya, 10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Nuwan Pradeep.

Pitch and conditions

Cuttack has only hosted one T20I, in which South Africa bowled India out for 92 before strolling to a six-wicket win, amid crowd trouble, in 2015. It was an atypically bowler-dominated game at the venue. Either side of it, India have made 350-plus scores in ODI victories over Sri Lanka and England.

Stats and trivia

• After 63 T20Is, Thisara Perera has taken 45 wickets while conceding 8.95 runs per over. Among bowlers who have bowled in a minimum of 20 T20I innings, only two – Elton Chigumbura and Andre Russell – have a worse economy rate.
• AB de Villiers has 72 dismissals (7 stumpings, 21 catches as wicketkeeper, 44 catches as fielder) in T20Is, the most dismissals in the field by any keeper or fielder. MS Dhoni, however, could soon go past him. He is currently on 70 (45 catches as wicketkeeper, 25 stumpings).
• Sri Lanka won four of their first seven T20Is against India, but have lost four out of four since then.

Quotes

“As senior players, we try and help these young guys as much as possible, but all the young guys who’ve come in have come in with a lot of IPL games behind them. Some have played 20, some have played 30 games, so they’re not as perturbed as they used to be in earlier days.”

Andile Phehlukwayo has also returned to the national fold, as Cricket South Africa announced their squad for the 2024-25 season

Firdose Moonda26-Mar-2024Nandre Burger and Tony de Zorzi have earned their first national contracts while Andile Phehlukwayo has returned to the national fold, as Cricket South Africa announced their squad for the 2024-25 season.Dean Elgar (retired), Quinton de Kock, Sisanda Magala, Anrich Nortje, Wayne Parnell and Keegan Petersen have all dropped off the list which has reduced from 20 players to 18 for the upcoming season. Gerald Coetzee, who was upgraded to a full contract midway through the last period, has been retained.The most notable of those omissions is Nortje, who has not played an international since suffering a stress fracture in September 2023. He missed out on the ODI World Cup and the entire home summer but came back earlier this month for two domestic T20 matches and is expected to play at the IPL. Nortje is late to this year’s tournament following the birth of his first child last week, and may still come into consideration for the T20 World Cup.”He requested he wants to focus on T20 cricket for the next few months. He is not retiring from any internationals. He will avail himself for T20 internationals. Towards the end of the year, he will look to play ODIs again,” Enoch Nkwe, CSA’s director of cricket told ESPNcricinfo. “We will be monitoring him and around to help him with whatever he needs.”Another big name absentee is de Kock, who walked away from 50-over cricket after last year’s World Cup but at the time said he would remain available to play in T20 tournaments this year. De Kock did not play in South Africa’s three match series against India and opted for a deal at the Big Bash League instead, where he fared poorly. He scored 104 runs in six innings with a top score of 30, and returned home to a slightly better SA20 where he hit 213 runs in 12 innings, including one fifty.De Kock, who is currently at the IPL with Lucknow Super Giants, was allowed time off for personal reasons during the first few rounds of the CSA domestic T20 challenge – all other nationally contracted players apart from David Miller, who was getting married, were obliged to participate.”He will be available for the T20 World Cup but he understands he needs to perform. He wants to earn his place,” Nkwe said.Anrich Nortje has not played an international match since September 2023•Getty Images

Magala has not played any cricket since last October and was ruled out of the ODI World Cup squad with a knee injury, Parnell continues to play for Western Province but spent parts of the season out of action with a shoulder injury and Petersen’s Test career seems to be hanging by a thread after he was dropped twice in two seasons. His biggest competitor in the Test squad, David Bedingham, has not been contracted. Kyle Verreynne, the current Test wicket-keeper, has also not been contracted.Instead, CSA handed out new deals to Burger, who debuted across all formats last year, and de Zorzi, who made his Test and ODI bow and recalled Phehlukwayo after dropping him from last year’s list. Phehlukwayo was part of the ODI World Cup squad, and played his first matches in the format in almost a year in 2023.The core of the contract list is unchanged, with Test and ODI captain Temba Bavuma and T20I captain Aiden Markram headlining the list and Miller and Heinrich Klaasen both contracted as white-ball only players.The national women’s contracted squad has increased from 15 players to 16 which has created space for both Eliz-Mari Marx and Ayanda Hlubi to earn deals. The only omission from last year is Shabnim Ismail, who retired last May. There was speculation that former captain Dane van Niekerk, who retired in March last year, may look to return ahead of this year’s T20 World Cup and though that could still be a possibility, she is not on the national contract list.

Dominant display with ball ensures that first-innings 144 for 6 is ample for 2-0 series lead

Danyal Rasool17-May-2024A disciplined, clinical performance with the ball and in the field saw England ease to a 65-run win in Northampton, taking an unassailable 2-0 lead over Pakistan. As in the first T20I, Sarah Glenn spearheaded her side with two wickets to follow up her four-wicket haul last Saturday, chopping through Pakistan’s middle order to cut the visitors, who fell apart with the bat once more, adrift.Several bowlers chipped in, with Lauren Bell, Charlie Dean, Alice Capsey and Sophie Ecclestone – who became the leading WT20I wicket-taker for England with her three, all among the wickets. It came during another tame batting performance from Pakistan, whose flashes of talent were unable to plug the holes their lack of consistency left exposed. The pursuit of 145 never really got off the ground, and before long, Nida Dar’s side folded feebly for 79.Pakistan had much to be hopeful about after the first innings. They dragged England back after a bright powerplay from the hosts, taking wickets at regular overs to stymie English momentum at every turn. It wasn’t quite as helpful a wicket to bat on as the one at Edgbaston, and England ensured most batters made contributions; five of the top seven scored between 15 and 31. A late cameo from Dani Gibson took England to 144, and while it seemed a vulnerable target at the time, England’s excellence in the second innings demonstrated it was anything but.Bouchier, Capsey begin brightlyIn an ultimately low-scoring game, England’s bellicose approach right from the outset provided them a buffer that would ultimately come in handy. Waheeda Akhtar was too straight with the first ball, and Maia Bouchier punished her with a flick for four, setting the powerplay tempo early. Another slap past point in the same over went for four, and Sadia Malik’s width was punished with a drive through the covers.Maia Bouchier got England’s innings off to a confident start•Getty Images

Capsey, meanwhile began stodgily, managing just two off the first nine. However, she cut loose in an onslaught against Waheeda in the fifth over, plundering five boundaries to make up for lost time. By the end of the fifth over, England had raced along to 43 for one; it would take Pakistan until the eighth over and the loss of three extra wickets before they breached that number. By that time, the game was all but secure for the hosts.The squeezeIf Pakistan could have strung together their powerplay bowling performance in Birmingham with their middle-overs showing today, the series may well have been level. Pakistan enjoyed relative control during the eight overs that followed the powerplay in the first innings, keeping England on a leash with their parsimony with the ball and in the field. Nida, Nashra Sandhu and Diana Baig whizzed through their overs, tying Bouchier down before a stunning bit of fielding caught her out of her crease and ran her out. Dar’s variety in the air was instrumental in deceiving an onrushing Capsey as the brakes were applied across a 48-ball spell that saw just 42 scored and set Pakistan up nicely for the deathThe implosionThere’s little point in breaking Pakistan’s innings down into phases. Much of it was a phantasmagoria of an absence of intent, frenetic shot selection and self-imploding running between the wickets, all of which England were much too impressive not to punish. Bell received the payoff for a tight couple of overs with two wickets in the third, Gull Feroza and Sadaf Shamas smacking a couple straight to fielders as the pressure told. A handful of boundaries from Muneeba Ali in the second half of the powerplay was as good as it got for the Pakistan batters, but that 30-run partnership was followed by another clump of wickets that killed Pakistan off.All of England’s bowlers understood Pakistan’s dilemma perfectly. They lack power hitters, and that means racking up dot deliveries can amp up the pressure in no time. That plan was executed to perfection, with a series of dot deliveries almost invariably followed up by high-risk shots that did not pay off. The last six wickets fell for just 19 on a scorecard that did not truly reflect Pakistan’s competitiveness in the first innings, though the gulf in quality between the two sides means the 2-0 scoreline is well deserved.

ECB escalate delay to BCCI and Indian government with 20-year-old stuck in UAE

Vithushan Ehantharajah22-Jan-2024England began their Test preparations in Hyderabad without Shoaib Bashir after visa issues left him stranded in the UAE.England arrived in India on Sunday ahead of Thursday’s opening Test following a training camp in Abu Dhabi, where Bashir remains after a delay in his paperwork left him unable to travel with the rest of the squad. The Somerset offspinner, whose parents are of Pakistani heritage, is being accompanied by Stuart Hooper, who recently joined the ECB as their new managing director of cricket operations.Brendon McCullum, England’s head coach, said that the ECB has escalated the matter with the relevant authorities, including the Indian government, and expects positive news in the next 24 hours. England are optimistic about a quick resolution and also expect to welcome Dan Lawrence on Monday evening.Related

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Lawrence was drafted into the 16-man squad after Harry Brook returned home following a family emergency. Brook flew back to the UK on Sunday, though Lawrence remained in the UAE to turn out for Desert Vipers in the ILT20 in their defeat to Abu Dhabi Knight Riders.Though Bashir is likely to miss two days of preparation – England will train on Tuesday morning at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium – McCullum insisted he will still be available for selection for the opening Test. Bashir, 20, was a bolter for the squad, selected on promise rather than performances, having taken just 10 first-class wickets at 67.Shoaib Bashir was a shock call-up for England’s tour to India•Getty Images

But he impressed on Lions duty and in the UAE with the full squad, where he has continued to make a strong impression with his high release point and ability to spin the ball sharply, which England regard as vital for the surfaces they expect to encounter in this series.”Bash will join us hopefully tomorrow as well,” McCullum said. “He’s got a couple of issues with his visa coming through. We’re confident on the back of the help from the BCCI and the Indian government that will sort itself out pretty quickly as well.”Things take time, don’t they? Everyone is doing what they can. It’s a process we need to go through. We’re pretty confident that we’re close. The time that Bash had with the squad over in Abu Dhabi, where he fitted in seamlessly, will serve him greatly.”We’ve also got a little bit of support out there for him so he’s not on his own. We’re hoping the news will come through today that his visa has been approved, then we’ll get him to sink his teeth into this series.”

The defeat in the Melbourne derby is a big blow to Stars’ hopes of qualifying for the finals

AAP13-Jan-2024Aaron Finch enjoyed a winning farewell despite a third-ball duck, as his Melbourne Renegades side dealt a massive blow to local rivals Melbourne Stars’ BBL finals hopes.A total of 41,205 people at Marvel Stadium witnessed an anti-climactic finale with the bat from former Australia captain Finch, who came charging down the pitch and skied an easy catch to his old mate Glenn Maxwell at mid-off. Maxwell didn’t celebrate as Finch walked off to great acclaim, raising his bat to acknowledge the ovation from the crowd.Finch, Renegades’ all-time leading scorer, had his team jersey number retired before the game. And Renegades at least gave him the proper send-off. Chasing Stars’ 137 for 8 on a tricky pitch offering assistance to spinners and quicks, they achieved their target with six wickets and 16 balls to spare.

Surrey seal second win of the competition after Glamorgan post below-par 152-6 in Cardiff

ECB Reporters Network11-Aug-2019Glamorgan’s abysmal season in the T20 Blast continued at Sophia Gardens where they were beaten by Surrey with six balls of an entertaining game remaining. The home team were some 30 runs short of a competitive total, with their top order batsmen – apart from Colin Ingram – again failing to lay foundations.Despite losing Aaron Finch in the first over, the other batsmen contributed for Surrey, Man-of-the-Match Mark Stoneman top-scoring with 53. Surrey moved on to five points, some way adrift of the qualification spots, while Glamorgan remain bottom without a win in this season’s competition.With Surrey needing to score at seven-and-a-half runs an over, Ruaidhri Smith, playing his first Blast game of the season after injury, gave Glamorgan the perfect start by dismissing the dangerous Finch with the final ball of the opening over.Will Jacks and Stoneman soon settled, however, with Jacks the more aggressive, and the second-wicket pair had taken Surrey to 70 for 1 by the halfway stage. After adding 82, Jacks then surrendered his wicket by edging to the wicketkeeper from a wild heave.Stoneman was the next to go, caught on the long-on boundary after scoring 53 from 49 balls, with Smith taking his third wicket. Surrey required a further 46 from the remaining five overs, then 19 from two, but de Lange was struck for 21 by Ollie Pope and Ben Foakes to secure victory, Pope finishing things with his second six.Glamorgan, who were put in, were soon in trouble, stumbling to 34 for 3 in the 6th over, which included the wicket of Australian batsman Shaun Marsh, playing his first game since breaking his arm during the World Cup. Marsh was out third ball, giving Imran Tahir a return catch, then the club’s second overseas player Fakhar Zaman, who has contributed only 100 runs from six innings at an average of 16, poked a simple catch to short third man.Much depended on Ingram and Chris Cooke. After adding 27, Cooke, who had been dropped earlier in his innings, holed out on the mid wicket boundary. Surrey’s fielding was sloppy throughout with Finch letting a ball go through his legs for four, with others dropping three catches.Ingram, who has also experienced a disappointing tournament by his standards, revived the innings by scoring 41 from 33 balls, which included two sixes, but with 5.3 with overs remaining Ingram was deceived by Tahir, giving Foakes a simple stumping.Glamorgan were indebted to Dan Douthwaite and Graham Wagg at the end of the innings – Wagg striking three sixes in his unbeaten 36 – but the total still turned out to be below par.

The Chennai Super Kings captain has been ‘pretty sick during the week’, but his recovery is ‘progressing’, according to coach Stephen Fleming

The Preview by Karthik Krishnaswamy30-Apr-20197:32

Vettori: Santner gives Super Kings another all-round option

Big picture

Both teams are already through to the playoffs, but places in the top two are still up for grabs, and any slip-ups in the closing stages of the league phase could land either Delhi Capitals or Chennai Super Kings in the Eliminator. It’s not a situation either team wants to be in. Capitals have considerable momentum behind them, having won six of their last seven matches, but Super Kings come to this meeting with defeats in three of their last four games.This slump in form can be read as a season-long weakness finally beginning to reflect in their results. Of all teams in the competition, Super Kings have been the slowest-scoring team in the Powerplay, with a run rate of 6.4 in that phase, and in the middle overs (7-15), where they have gone at 6.9. Two of their key batsmen, Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav, are this season’s slowest scorers among all batsmen with a minimum of 100 runs to their name, with strike rates of 89.49 and 96.42 respectively. In third place, at 110.49, is another Super King – Faf du Plessis.MS Dhoni’s form (his 314 runs this season have come at an average of 104.66 and a strike rate of 137.11) could only cover these cracks for so long. It wasn’t surprising that Super Kings, minus Dhoni, slumped to 109 all out, and their first home defeat of the season, in their last match against Mumbai Indians.

Form guide

Chennai Super Kings: lost to Mumbai Indians by 46 runs, beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets, lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore by one run
Delhi Capitals: beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 16 runs, beat Rajasthan Royals by six wickets, beat Kings XI Punjab by five wickets

Apart from the fever that kept him out of the game against Mumbai, Dhoni has also had to deal with back trouble this season. Will he be back on Tuesday? We don’t know yet.”Dhoni is progressing,” Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming said on the eve of the match. “He’s been pretty sick during the week. We’ll make a call on him tomorrow but he’s progressing, which is good.”Whether Dhoni plays or not, Capitals will know it’s never an easy task to play Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Their away record – five wins in six games this season – should give them confidence, but if they haven’t been quite as good at home – three wins in six games – it’s because they haven’t enjoyed batting on the slow, grippy surface at Feroz Shah Kotla. Only one surface this season has been slower and grippier this season – the one they’ll play on tomorrow.

Previous meeting

Dwayne Bravo picked up three wickets at the death, and Capitals only managed 29 in their last five overs, leaving Super Kings a not-hugely-challenging 147 to chase. Shane Watson’s 26-ball 44 gave them the early impetus, but the win took until the last over to arrive, thanks to a leisurely stand of 48 in 53 balls between Dhoni and Jadhav.

In the news

Like Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja and du Plessis were also absent ill from the match against Mumbai. Unlike Dhoni, both have recovered fully. “Faf’s been fine. Jadeja’s also training well,” Fleming said. “Definitely in consideration for tomorrow.”Kagiso Rabada is pumped up•BCCI

Likely XIs

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Faf du Plessis/M Vijay, 2 Shane Watson, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 Kedar Jadhav, 6 MS Dhoni/Dhruv Shorey, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Ravindra Jadeja/Mitchell Santner, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Harbhajan Singh, 11 Imran TahirDelhi Capitals: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Colin Ingram, 6 Sherfane Rutherford, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Sandeep Lamichhane, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Ishant Sharma

Strategy punt

• Kagiso Rabada has played 18 games for Capitals/Daredevils in the IPL, and he’s picked up two or more wickets in 11 of those matches. Of those 11 games, his team has won eight and lost three. When he’s picked up less than two wickets, however, they’ve only won two out of five. These numbers suggest that teams are unable to go after the other Capitals bowlers if they suffer too much damage at the hands of their main strike weapon; perhaps there is a case for Super Kings to play Rabada out watchfully.
• Colin Ingram has had an excellent IPL season against spin, scoring 91 off 64 balls while only being dismissed once. He’s not been great against pace, though, scoring 80 off 62 while being dismissed six times. Rishabh Pant has been pretty good against spin – 152 off 108 balls, four dismissals – but devastating against pace – 191 off 105 balls, six dismissals. Spinners always bowl plenty of overs in Chennai, and which of these two left-handers bats at No. 4 and which one is held back to No. 5 could well depend on the phase of the innings and which bowlers are operating.
• Jadeja has bowled 165 balls to right-hand batsmen in IPL 2019, conceding 161 runs and taking nine wickets. Against left-hand batsmen, he has bowled 75 balls, conceding 104 runs and taking no wickets. Mitchell Santner, on the other hand, has been excellent against left-hand batsmen (14 balls, nine runs, two wickets), albeit from a small sample size. Given the number of left-handers in Delhi’s top order, however, Super Kings might be tempted to retain Santner even though Jadeja should be available, even if they aren’t able to bring back du Plessis as a result.

Stats that matter

• Super Kings have won 13 and lost six of their matches against Capitals.
• If du Plessis features, he will be playing his 200th T20 match.
• Dwayne Bravo is one short of 300 T20 sixes, and also one short of 50 T20 wickets at MA Chidambaram Stadium.
• Suresh Raina has 49 fifties in T20 cricket.

The 25-year-old got Heat home in an innings of composure and character.

AAP22-Dec-2024Brisbane Heat 175 for 7 (McSweeney 78*, Renshaw 54, Pope 2-17) beat Adelaide Strikers 174 for 6 (Jamie Overton 45*, Prestwidge 2-16) by three wicketsNathan McSweeney has rebounded from his Test axing to inspire Brisbane to a last-ball BBL victory over Adelaide Strikers with a brilliant and unbeaten 78. He was “devastated” on being dropped from Australia’s side for the remainder of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy but the 25-year-old got Heat home in an innings of composure and character.Heat spinner Mitchell Swepson hit the final delivery of the chase off Liam Scott for a single over point to secure a three-wicket win, but the hero was McSweeney. After being put under pressure by India spearhead Jasprit Bumrah in the Test series, he found himself in a high-pressure chase after Strikers had posted 174 for 6.Related

• McSweeney 'devastated' by Test omission

McSweeney took 16 runs off the second over of the power surge, off Henry Thornton, and celebrated with a six off Matthew Short in the next before guiding Heat to victory. McSweeney received a huge cheer from the 23,681 fans at the Gabba when he came to the crease and initially played second fiddle to a rampant Matt Renshaw.Renshaw (54 off 27) was in scintillating form with his placement, power and purpose all elite. He launched three sixes over the on side and an assortment of exquisite cuts and drives before flicking a Lloyd Pope delivery onto his shoulder and then the stumps.His 66-run partnership with McSweeney for the third wicket off just 39 deliveries got Heat back in it.Earlier, Strikers pace bowler Thornton bowled Jimmy Peirson (8) in his first over but then dropped a sitter at midwicket when Heat skipper Colin Munro skied one off Jamie Overton. Thornton made amends immediately when he cleaned up Munro (7) with the first ball of his next over.Strikers’ English contingent of Pope and Overton fired with the bat to lift the visitors to a competitive total.Overton hit hard and often in the latter overs in his unbeaten 45 off just 24 deliveries. At 196cm, the allrounder has a long reach and immense power and he utilised both to put the hosts’ bowlers off their length and crunch three sixes.Pope (34 off 29), fresh from two half-centuries in the Test series against New Zealand, started with consecutive boundaries off rookie seamer Tom Whitney before holing out to McSweeney in the outfield. Heat pace bowler Xavier Bartlett gave his side the perfect start by snaring D’Arcy Short (1) in the first over.That brought former Gabba favourite Chris Lynn to the wicket and he opened his account with his 209th BBL six, a cracking flick over midwicket. Lynn (24) was well caught attempting his 210th at long-on by Bartlett.Impressive 22-year-old Will Prestwidge (2 for 16) hit the pitch hard and picked up the key wickets of Pope and Lynn.