Week ending 24th December: Jofra excites on BBL debut

We start this festive edition of Winter Watch in Australia. Jofra Archer was the talk of social media following his Big Bash debut on Thursday. He bowled a double wicket maiden for Hobart Hurricanes against Melbourne Renegades and conceded just seventeen runs and only two boundaries from his four overs. Tymal Mills was wicketless from his four overs but was the second most economical of the Hurricanes bowlers. The Sussex pair were on the losing side, however, as their 164-8 (Jofra made one hitting out at the death) was chased down with nine balls to spare.

There were 19 runs off 15 balls for Luke Wright in the first game of his seventh BBL campaign for Melbourne Stars. Chasing 2017 for victory, the Stars fell 16 runs short of victory against Brisbane Heat in their opener.

New South Wales Premier Cricket has entered its Christmas break. Delray Rawlins, Ollie Robinson and Abi Sakande will return to the field on the weekend of the 6th and 7th January.

In South Australia, there was a match for Michael Burgess last week. He was part of the Adelaide University CC side that beat Kensington in round three of the West End Twenty20 Cup on Wednesday evening. Michael made 13 from 11 balls at the top of the order as AUCC made 159-5, nine more than Kensington could muster.

Across the Tasman Sea, Chris Jordan arrived in New Zealand in time for Northern Districts Knights’ fourth match in the Super Smash T20 competition. Taking on Otago Volts at Hamilton on Friday, the Knights batted first and made 212-8 from their 20 overs, with Chris making eight from three balls from number eight. Bowling first change, Chris then took 2-17 from three overs as Knights romped to a 106-run victory.

In South Africa’s one-day competition, the Momentum Cup, David Wiese took 1-28 off four overs with the new ball for Titans against Knights on Friday at Centurion. David wasn’t required to bat as Titans chased down Knights’ 212 with seven wickets in hand.