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After last-ball thrillers in East London and Durban, England chase down South Africa’s second-highest score at Centurion in fine style

The Report by Firdose Moonda16-Feb-2020After last-ball thrillers in East London and Durban, England sealed the T20 series in the final over in Centurion to deny South Africa a first series win since March 2019. In a high-scoring thriller, England chased down South Africa’s second-highest score at this venue in fine style, with half-centuries from Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow keeping them on track and Eoin Morgan’s unbeaten 57 providing the perfect finish.

England fined for slow over rate

England were fined 20% of their match fee for maintaining a slow over rate during South Africa’s innings.
Match referee David Boon imposed the sanctions after the hosts were found to be one over short of the target after taking time allowances into account.
As per the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, players are fined 20% of their match fees for every over short.

The result means England leave South Africa with two out of the three trophies on offer and half of the third (the ODI cup was shared) and have provided high-class entertainment during a summer of rebuilding for the hosts. The run-rate in the series was the highest in any three-match rubber – 10.12. It’s a nice record to be part of, but it won’t mean much to South Africa, who started each of the three formats with a win, only to fade away as the fixtures rolled on.England’s early preparations for the T20 World Cup are on track with several of their players finding form. Morgan was the highest run-scorer overall with two half-centuries in three matches while Tom Curran’s variations were used to good effect. He claimed the important wickets of top-scorer Heinrich Klaasen and Dwaine Pretorius at the death in this match to derail South Africa’s push towards 240 and finished as England’s highest wicket-taker of the series.South Africa, under stand-in captain Quinton de Kock, will be pleased with the way he has taken to leadership and his opening partnership with Temba Bavuma but have work to do finding the right combination in the middle order. Dale Steyn’s return bodes well for the T20 World Cup but he was left in the shade by Lungi Ngidi, who topped the wicket charts and whose slower ball has added greatly to his skill set. It did not do the trick at SuperSport Park but after spending much of the last three months recovering from injury, Ngidi will just be pleased to be on the park and performing.The last five overs South Africa scored 58 runs in the last five overs, so England’s ask of 62 off the final five was not out of the question. Steyn ushered in the final passage of play by giving away only three runs off the first five balls of his final over. But the sixth one, a slower ball of the kind that foxed Ben Stokes, did not deceive Morgan, who heaved it over long-off for six. He tucked into Ngidi’s next over, with two sixes in three balls and then Stokes pulled Andile Phehlukwayo’s penultimate over apart, with successive maximums. The 17th and 18th overs cost South Africa 36 runs and ensured England scored more than half of what they required in the final five, to clear their path to victory.Best of the summer Buttler and Bairstow shared in the highest partnership of the match, 91 runs, and both put on their best performances of the summer to leave South Africa in a different state than when they arrived in. The pair have been under pressure in the longest format but came good with half-centuries each to keep England on track in the chase. Buttler latched on to anything too full, with the pick of his shots a six over long-on off Steyn, while Bairstow was ruthless against spin. He took 10 runs off Bjorn Fortuin’s first two balls and 14 runs off the first three balls of Shamsi’s second over, including a six straight down the ground. Much like what happened to South Africa when their set pair were dismissed, when Buttler and Bairstow were snuffed out, England wobbled. They lost 3 for 39 in the middle of the innings but had Morgan on-hand to put them back on track.Opening stands South Africa’s top two set the tone strongly in all three matches in this series with stands of 92, 48 and 84 while England’s pair did not manage a partnership more than 20 once. At SuperSport Park, de Kock and Bavuma showed intent from the first ball, when Bavuma cut Moeen Ali for four. That shot served him well throughout his innings and he initially looked to be taking a more aggressive approach than de Kock, until Chris Jordan came on in the fourth over. De Kock hit three successive sixes – the second brought up South Africa’s fifty off 22 balls – to overtake Bavuma, but only temporarily. Bavuma took 10 runs off Adil Rashid’s first two balls to edge ahead. If the game between them had continued, South Africa could have seen 250 in their sights but they were dismissed within four balls of each other, which stalled the innings.England also started on an encouraging note, with 15 runs off the first seven balls they faced but then Jason Roy was brilliantly caught by Tabraiz Shamsi, whose time at the strength and conditioning camp seems to have paid off. That meant England’s first-wicket stand was the lowest of the three matches.The real cost of the wides England’s nine wides meant that they bowled an extra over-and-a-half but their transgressions cost them much more than that. A calculation of the runs scored off the extra ball bowled – the ball immediately after the wide – revealed that England conceded a further 31 runs, meaning the real cost of their wides was 40 runs. That included a Klaasen six off Stokes over deep mid-wicket, fours off Mark Wood down the ground and Jordan through backward point and a David Miller four through backward square leg off Jordan and six over deep mid-wicket off Curran. Ultimately, the wides were the difference between 180 and 220 but it still didn’t stop England from winning.Crucial drops Bavuma is not a player you would associate with fielding errors but he made one when he put down a straightforward chance off Pretorius, that would have seen Dawid Malan dismissed at the end of the 12th over. Bavuma was at extra cover when Malan, on 8, hit the ball firmly towards him and it burst through his hands. Little damage was done as Malan only added three more to his score before under-edging Shamsi to de Kock. Pretorius, though, went on to make a bigger mistake. In the penultimate over, two balls after Ngidi had Stokes caught on the boundary, Moeen top-edged, Pretorius ran in from short fine leg and made the ground he needed to take the catch but then put it down. England needed 16 from nine balls at that stage and another wicket might have made the difference but it was not to be.

Australia captain also excited at the prospect of playing both Tayla Vlaeminck and Darcie Brown in the same XI

Andrew McGlashan05-Jul-2021Australia captain Meg Lanning has endorsed the view that if Test cricket is to grow as a viable format in the women’s game, then multi-day matches need to be played at domestic level as her team prepares for a home season that will include games against India and England.Lanning also sees merit in extending Tests to five days, something England captain Heather Knight spoke about after the recent match against India which ended in a draw, but has committed to her Australian team playing aggressively this season to try and ensure results.”It makes sense if we are going to be playing more Tests internationally to have some sort of domestic structure in place,” Lanning said on the day that international tickets went on public sale. “I’m not sure exactly how you’d do that but it’s hard to get better at something if you aren’t practicing at the level below. To give us the best chance and play the way we want to, we need to be practicing.Related

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“We’ll be looking to get some results from the Tests we play, but an important part of it is learning how to win the Tests. That only comes with experience and time playing the format. The more we play, the better the spectacle will be. As players, we want to play as aggressively as we can, so this summer will give us a good chance to do that and hopefully, that means there’ll be more to come.”In terms of preparing to face India in a day-night fixture at the WACA in late September, Lanning indicated Australia would have multi-day practice matches ahead of the series. Matthew Mott, the head coach, cautioned last week that India could arrive as the better-prepared team, having faced England in a one-off Test while a number of their players would also have been a part of the Hundred.”I think it’s an important point given we don’t play a lot of Test matches and we are coming from our off-season,” Lanning said. “I’m sure there’ll be some practice games in there, whether it be inter-squad or if we bring some players to play against. It’s an important part of the preparation to get the tempo right in terms of the longer format. You need to play around a bit and work out what will suit you best. Everyone is thinking about that as we start our pre-season. We’ll do the best we can.”The most logical route for an expansion of Test cricket would appear to be around the multi-format series which began with the Ashes, and Lanning hoped that India’s Test in Australia would open the door for return fixtures.”Personally, I’d love to play a Test in India. I think that would be a really good challenge and something I’d love to happen in the not-too-distant future,” she said. “Hopefully, this just isn’t a one-off and is something that will continue into the future.”One enticing prospect in the Test matches, especially at the WACA, is the potential to have pace bowlers Tayla Vlaeminck and Darcie Brown team up. Vlaeminck returned to the side after injury on the tour of New Zealand earlier this year while Brown, who is capable of sharp late swing, made her debut on the same trip and pushed the speed gun.”The fast-bowling unit of our squad has been building over the last months,” Lanning said. “They are two really quick young bowlers who are super exciting. The prospect of both of those being unleashed on the WACA is quite a nice one. Hopefully, they are both fit and available to be picked. Having had a few chats with Motty about what our side might look like, it’s going to be very difficult to get it down to 11 players; we’ve got some great variations.”Looking more broadly at a packed season, which concludes next March and April with the ODI World Cup in New Zealand, Lanning is aware that some players may need to be managed to ensure they are peaking when most needed.”That will be a crucial part of our summer to make sure we are managing our workloads – physically and mentally – the best we can,” she said. “It is a new test – we haven’t played this much ever, to be honest. Everyone wants to play as many games as they can and we’ll try to do that, but there likely will be times when we’ll have to manage players, particularly the fast bowlers with the extra load. Our fitness and ability to cover the ground is something we pride ourselves on and hopefully, we can get ourselves into really good shape which will hold us in good stead.”

The former India captain will undergo a stenting procedure on Thursday

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jan-2021Former India captain and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has been hospitalised for the second time this month after complaining of “chest discomfort”. It is understood that Ganguly complained of restlessness on Tuesday evening and was admitted to the Apollo Gleneagles hospital in Kolkata on Wednesday, and will undergo a stenting procedure on Thursday.A statement from the hospital on Wednesday evening provided the following details and updates:

• Past history: He had pain [in the] chest on Jan 2, 2021. He came to Woodlands hospital then. Diagnosis was done as Triple vessel disease. He had three blocks in RCA [right coronary artery], LAD [left anterior descending artery], OM2 [second obtuse marginal].
• Stenting was done on RCA on Jan 2, 2021. Medical Board was done with many experts including Dr Devi Shetty.
• The advice was the rest two blocks were to be revasculalised/stenting to be done after 2-3 weeks.
• Today is 25th day post PTCA [percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, a procedure to open blocked coronary arteries and improve blood flow to the heart muscles].
• He had chest discomfort today and he is taken to Apollo today. Dr Saptarshi Basu and Dr Saroj Mondal are attending. Dr Aftab Khan will do the stenting tomorrow in presence of Dr Devi Shetty.

This came after a statement from the hospital earlier in the day, which said, “There is no change in his parameters since his last hospitalization and his vital parameters are stable”.Earlier in the month, Ganguly had been discharged from Woodlands Hospital following treatment for a similar complaint, later described as a heart attack by doctors. He was said to have recovered after the angioplasty. After being discharged, Ganguly had been on oral medication and was to be “monitored by doctors and nurses on a daily basis at home”.The MD and CEO of Woodlands Hospital, Dr Rupali Basu, had said at the time that Ganguly had no known comorbidities, but a family history of heart diseases, and that he had tested negative for Covid-19. His brother, former Bengal cricketer and current Cricket Association of Bengal joint secretary Snehasish Ganguly, underwent a successful angioplasty last week, also at the Apollo Gleneagles Hospital.One of the expert consultants, renowned cardiologist Dr Devi Shetty, had said during the discharge that Ganguly had no heart damage.”Did he have a heart damage? No. He had a blockage and he was getting some discomfort, but at the right time he landed in the right hospital and he had the right treatment,” Shetty had said at the time. “His heart is today as strong as it was when Sourav was 20 years old. I want everyone to understand that he didn’t have a major cardiac event which has damaged his heart. He has a very, very strong heart.”

Slow left-armer recruited as replacement for compatriot Todd Murphy

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Mar-2023Durham have signed Matthew Kuhnemann, the Australia slow left-arm spinner, for their LV= Insurance County Championship campaign, after a planned deal for Kuhnemann’s Test team-mate Todd Murphy fell through.Durham had hoped to bring in Murphy for the first part of the summer but the offspinner’s availability was blocked by Cricket Australia, with the expectation that he will be part of their Ashes squad. Durham’s director of cricket, the former Australia international Marcus North, said the club still intended to call on Murphy for the latter part of the season.Kuhnemann, 26, made his Test debut alongside Murphy and Nathan Lyon in India last month, going on to claim nine wickets in three appearances, including a maiden five-for in Australia’s victory in Indore.”We are very excited to have secured another exciting young spin talent in Matthew Kuhnemann,” North said. “Matt impressed in India for Australia and is in a great place with his game, we are really looking forward to him joining us next week and seeing him perform in the County Championship.”We were keen to bring in a spinner that will enable us to further strengthen and balance our Championship side and with the signing of Matt, that now helps us to be effective in all conditions.”We are obviously disappointed that Todd Murphy will not be joining as in the early part of the season as planned, but we look forward to welcoming him to the club later in the summer.”Kuhnemann, who was already due to play club cricket in the UK, only made his first-class debut for Queensland in 2021 but has had plenty of Big Bash experience with Brisbane Heat as well as being capped four times in ODIs.”I’m really excited to be joining Durham for the upcoming county season,” Kuhnemann said. “I look forward to playing with some world class players and contributing to some wins for the club throughout the summer. I can’t wait to get over there and meet everyone.”

Offspinner will join Imam-ul-Haq at the club for the final month of this season

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Sep-2022Somerset have signed Sajid Khan, the Pakistan offspinner, as their second overseas player for the final month of the County Championship season as they look to avoid relegation to Division Two.Matt Renshaw and Peter Siddle, their overseas players for most of the 2022 season, have both returned to Australia and Sajid joins his compatriot Imam-ul-Haq in signing for the final four Championship games.”I know that in recent years Babar Azam and Azhar Ali have enjoyed their time at Somerset, and I am looking forward to playing alongside Imam-ul-Haq again,” Sajid said. “I hope that I can contribute to Somerset winning the last four County Championship games of the season.”Related

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• Sajid and Pakistan rage against the dying light to snatch victory

Jack Leach, Somerset’s frontline spinner, will be unavailable for the next two games while on Test duty, and Andy Hurry, their director of cricket, said the club felt it was “important to recruit an international quality spinner for the County Championship run in”.”After detailed consideration of all the options available to us, we felt that Sajid Khan was the standout individual,” Hurry said. “He has proved his quality at the very highest level, and he is hungry to test himself in English conditions over the next few weeks.”He is a player with an outstanding attitude, and he is well aware of exactly what County Championship cricket means to this club and its members and supporters.”Somerset are ninth in Division One heading into the final month of the season, though have a game in hand on Kent and Warwickshire who sit seventh and eighth respectively.

England coach pleased with players rising to challenge of fighting for World Cup spots

Valkerie Baynes10-Mar-2019England’s World Cup selection puzzle just got harder, given some of the individual performances in the T20I series sweep against West Indies, Trevor Bayliss says.Bayliss said England’s selectors were closer to deciding their squad of 15, due to be named by April 23 but which can be changed up until May 22, eight days before the tournament starts. However, he believed their job had been made more complicated following a comprehensive 3-0 series victory over the T20 World Champions, who were bowled out for 45 and 71 in the last two matches.”It is, which is fantastic, that’s exactly what we wanted,” Bayliss told Sky Sports. “Long-term for England the more players and the more depth that we’ve got, that’s just good for England cricket. It puts a little bit of pressure on from within.”Bayliss was particularly pleased with how some players had responded to talk of Jofra Archer’s possible selection once the Barbados-born bowler qualifies to represent England under ECB residence rules.Before doing his best to press his case by taking 4 for 7 off three overs to lead England to an eight-wicket rout of West Indies in the final T20 match, David Willey had questioned whether Archer’s inclusion could destabilise a squad which had been together for some time.”Just recently there’s been a bit of talk about Jofra Archer playing and it’s great to see two or three of our guys that are in the team respond positively to that challenge,” Bayliss said.”I think we’re getting down fairly close to that 15. It’s going to make our job just that little bit harder with some of the performances in this T20 series. Obviously the World Cup is a 50-over competition, but we’re going to have to have a good, hard, long chat about that World Cup squad.”Bayliss said one-dayers against Ireland and Pakistan before the World Cup would be pivotal in finalising selection and presenting an opportunity to rest some players who were assured of a berth.Also thrusting himself into the spotlight during the T20s against West Indies was Chris Jordan, who took 2 for 16 and 4 for 6 in the first two matches and whose athletic fielding proved highly valuable.Bayliss rated Jordan’s performance as “fantastic” and said the door had not closed on the 30-year-old’s career in ODIs or Tests despite not having played an ODI since 2016 and the last of his eight Tests in 2015.”He’s played both before so he’s certainly got it within him and if he takes some confidence away from the way he’s bowled in these T20s there’s no reason he can’t [return],” Bayliss said. “He’s been a good player for us in the T20 cricket for a while now, not just his bowling but his fielding, he’s probably our best fielder and he’s shown throughout these three T20 matches that catches can win matches for you.”Bayliss said while he was comfortable with England being branded favourites for the World Cup, his side still had plenty of work to do.”The bouncier wickets are probably our biggest challenge at the moment,” Bayliss said. “Our batting has been our strength over the last three or four years. Our fielding has improved, but I always think we can get better as a fielding team.”Our bowlers, I think, have been unheralded. The batters have taken a little bit of the spotlight away from the bowlers but as a group of bowlers I think they’ve done fantastically well. It’s good to see during this T20 series it’s the bowlers who have been the ones that have actually set it up for us.”

The opener currently has eight, after his Player-of-the-Series performance against South Africa

Andrew Fidel Fernando23-Jul-2018Until South Africa finally located their batting backbone in the last innings of the series, Sri Lanka opener Dimuth Karunaratne had outscored their entire team in the series. Karunaratne’s aggregate of 356 runs at an average of 118.66 and a strike rate in the mid-sixties is staggering enough in a bowling-dominated series. But, that he was so prolific – passing 50 in each of his innings – after having missed the last series in the West Indies due to a hand injury, is especially impressive.Having now hit hundreds against Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and South Africa since the start of 2017, Karunaratne has his sights set on a career goal that only the very good Test batsmen achieve. He is increasingly thought of as a reliable run-scorer in this Sri Lanka team, and has claimed a top-ten place in the ICC’s Test batting rankings for the first time.”My personal goal that I would be happy with is to get to 20 to 25 Test hundreds, and hopefully one day I will get there,” he said. “I want to be a match-winning performer and give my best. When I do that rankings will automatically come.”Karunaratne currently has eight tons. He has become a specialist on difficult pitches – especially those that take substantial turn, as his 158 not out in Galle in the first Test suggested. Karunaratne totaled 218 runs in a match where no other batsmen hit a fifty.Karunaratne has spoken of the positive approach he has against spin, but he also revealed that he had been working on specific strokes with coaches in the past few months. “I had a few chats with my school coach recently, and Hashan Tillakaratne has been a great help, along with batting coach Thilan Samaraweera,” he said. “With Hashan, I worked on stuff like the sweep and reverse sweep. Those are must-have shots when fielders are close in. When you play the sweep or reverse sweep, the field spreads.”Although breaking his hand in domestic cricket in May forced him to miss the series in West Indies in June, Karunaratne did play some cricket – the selectors sending him to Bangladesh with the Sri Lanka A team for two unofficial Tests. It was in Bangladesh, Karunaratne said, that this current run of form began.”Actually, when the West Indies Tests started, I was fit. But I didn’t have any match practice behind me. So the selectors told me to be fit for South Africa series and wanted me to play Bangaldesh games. That was a good call, because even when I started playing in that series, I wasn’t too confident in my body. I was fearful that the hand might break again. But once I spent a couple of hours at the crease, I started to feel like it was ok, and I sort of slipped into my natural game.”The pity for Karunaratne is that although he is in excellent touch, there are no matches for him to play in the coming months. Sri Lanka’s next Test is not until November, and there are no domestic matches scheduled in the interim. He is now resigned to doing as much work in the nets as possible in the nets, before England arrive for a three-Test series.”That’s the biggest challenge for someone who is a Test specialist – you have to go months without a game. This time, since the Bangladesh A matches were there, I could get back to form. Breaks are good, but I need to be at the top of my game. To get back to being that settled at the crease and to keep that intensity is not easy. But I have done that thorughout my career. If there are any domestic matches – any kinds of matches – before the next Test, I will definitely play them.”

Australia were hit by a concussion to Alyssa Healy, their Player of the Match in the last three games, that ruled out her participation in the chase

The Report by Akshay Gopalakrishnan17-Nov-2018India’s spinners choked out a weakened Australian line-up with relentless accuracy to send them crashing to 119 all out, and a 48-run defeat in their final Group B game at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. The win meant India finished atop the Group B table, undefeated after four games. They will now face the loser of West Indies v England on Sunday, while the winner takes on Australia in the semifinals.The win was set up by Smriti Mandhana, whose belligerent 83 hauled India to a competitive 167 – their highest in T20Is against Australia – after they had elected to bat. Known for her free-willed stroke-making, Mandhana capitalised on some erratic Australian bowling to set the foundation for a winning score.Australia were hit hard by an injury to Alyssa Healy, the Player of the Match in their last three encounters. Healy was involved in a nasty collision with Megan Schutt, as both bowler and keeper went for a catch in the 19th over of the Indian innings. Healy seemed to cop a hard blow around her left shoulder as Schutt crashed into her before spilling the catch. She went down immediately upon impact and was taken off the field, handing over the gloves to Beth Mooney. It was subsequently revealed that the wicketkeeper-batsman had suffered a mild concussion and wouldn’t take part in the chase.Even with her absence, India needed to bring out their best game against the might of this Australian line-up. Their chances always hung on how well their slower bowlers would be able to tie down the opposition. And sure enough, five of the six bowlers used by Harmanpreet Kaur, including herself, were spinners.India trialled with pace just for one over first-up – the very first of the innings – and immediately Australia hit their groove, Mooney finding the boundary twice and pinching 11 off Arundhati Reddy. The message was clear: deny Australia pace and take them out of their comfort zone.Getty Images

Kaur heeded to it the very next over, bringing in Anuja Patil, the offspinner. It cost just three, further reinforcing the strategy. From there, India unsparingly kept the leash on. When Villani pulled Deepti Sharma’s offbreak into the hands of deep midwicket at the start of the fifth over, it became clear that Australia were in a scrap against lack of pace. Mooney’s start was snuffed out next ball, when she was bowled around her legs.The only time Australia found any momentum was against the easy pace of Reddy. As in her first, she was taken apart for a brace of boundaries in her second over, the last of the Powerplay, which also turned out to be her last.The passage immediately after the Powerplay marked the worst of the slowdown. After Ashleigh Gardner launched Poonam Yadav for six over long-off in the ninth over, Australia went 34 balls without a boundary. They also lost two wickets in the interim.Radha Yadav, bowling from several yards behind the crease to slow it up even further, had Meg Lanning caught at deep midwicket when the Australian captain tried to force a sweep. And when Gardner was out, trying to clear long-off, to Poonam in the next over, the heart of Australia’s batting had been ripped out. Ellyse Perry dazzled with an unbeaten 39 thereafter, but with the rest of Australia’s line-up crumbling in the face of a mounting required rate, their resistance ended in 19.4 overs.These struggles were a far cry from how India had begun their own innings. Mandhana launched a boundary-laden assault that offset the early loss of Taniya Bhatia in no time. Mandhana boldly stepped down the pitch to pace and moved sharply around the crease to make room when the bowlers tightened their lines. Australia fed her strengths with a generous mix of full and short balls, and Mandhana didn’t let a single one go unpunished.The loss of Jemimah Rodrigues in the seventh over only eased some of the load on Mandhana, as Kaur matched her aggression with some imperious hits of her own.Known for her blazing starts but a tendency to not capitalise on them, Mandhana showed she was in for the long haul this time around, when she raised a fifty, off 31 balls, in the tenth over. The duo’s partnership was thrown a lifeline when Healy missed a stumping, with Kaur on 26. Kimmince broke the stand at 68. But Mandhana continued to strike them big and hard, in the process becoming the second-fastest Indian batsman, after Mithali Raj, to 1000 T20 international runs, as she put the game beyond Australia.

They collapsed in the middle, but much of the good work done by McCullum and Lynn didn’t go to waste in a truncated contest

The Report by Tristan Lavalette08-Jan-2019Getty Images

Brendon McCullum combined with Chris Lynn to power Brisbane Heat to an imposing total at Spotless Stadium before rain dented Sydney Thunder’s chase of 187. Then the game was decided by the DLS method, with Brisbane 15 ahead at the cut-off time.After being sent in to bat, Heat’s high-profile top-order finally clicked with McCullum shrugging off a slump and combining in belligerent half-century partnerships with opener Max Bryant and Lynn. Heat looked set to crack the first score of 200 in the tournament before falling in the end overs by losing 6 for 11 to give the home side a sniff.Thunder, however, struggled against a fired-up James Pattinson before the rain came down as Sydney’s frustrating weather continued to interrupt cricket in the city, following a fifth-day abandonment of the fourth Australia-India Test.Heat (2-3) were all smiles though after collecting a second straight victory to revive their BBL campaign, while a slumping Thunder (3-4) have lost four of five.Baz is back

McCullum’s woes had been a chief reason for Heat’s early struggles. With just 30 runs in the Heat’s opening four matches, the former skipper looked a shadow of his blistering best but he was determined to get out of the rut against Thunder.In trademark fashion, McCullum tried to smash his way back into form but was completely out of touch at the start and unable to connect a slew of attempted slogs. He made just six from his first 12 deliveries before smacking a generous full toss from Chris Green over the ropes to break the shackles.It proved the required tonic as a rejuvenated McCullum then repeated the dose on his next ball faced by charging Daniel Sams and clearing the boundary. In a complete reversal, a red hot McCullum smashed 30 off nine balls and was matched by Bryant, who has the second highest strike-rate in the tournament.The openers plundered 76 before Bryant (36 from 23) was bowled by a quicker Jonathan Cook delivery which ricocheted off the pads. McCullum, however, continued the pyrotechnics show and reached his half-century in style with a powerful club into the sightscreen off Fahwad Ahmed.There was no respite for Thunder with the much-hyped Bash Brothers finally living up to top billing with Lynn showcasing an array of power hitting. Having been somewhat shackled in the opening four games, Lynn rediscovered his sweet timing to pepper the boundaries.
McCullum’s entertaining 35-ball knock ended in the 14th over but he laid the perfect platform and revived his BBL campaign.Thunder spinners fight back

Thunder captain Shane Watson relies on his spinners on the somewhat sluggish Spotless Stadium pitch. With McCullum and Lynn in full flow, Watson’s best laid plans were in ruins with the Heat duo smashing 63 runs from overs seven to 12 against the spin of Ahmed, Cook and Green.The trio copped much humiliation until the wheel spectacularly turned when Lynn holed out off Cook, who was then on a hat-trick when he trapped in-form Ben Cutting in front. Ahmed and Green joined the party as Heat lost 5 for 2 in 12 balls seemingly out of nowhere.The batting was admittedly foolhardy but, nonetheless, Watson deserved plaudits for backing his spinners and enticing rash strokes through aggressive field placings.Buttler’s BBL ends with a whimper

Jos Buttler, the season’s leading run-scorer, has been the standout batsman and hoped to finish his BBL campaign on a high note before travelling to the Caribbean for England’s upcoming tour.After hitting a boundary off the first ball of the innings, Buttler’s tournament ended in the second over when he was trapped lbw by an aggressive Pattinson.Joe Root, also in his last BBL match, didn’t face a delivery before rain stopped play in the sixth over. There was one major highlight of Thunder’s brief reply, however, with Watson clubbing a short Mujeeb ur Rahman delivery onto the roof in one of the tournament’s biggest sixes.