Winter Watch (w/e 2 Dec): T10 concludes, WBBL starts and yet another century for Luke Wells

Another busy edition sees eleven Sussex players in action...

The second edition of the T10 League in Sharjah reached its conclusion on Sunday. No Sussex players were involved in the final that saw Northern Warriors overcome Pakhtoons, but the boys still had a busy week in the tournament.

The Punjabi Legends were unable to make it into the latter stages, but Phil Salt impressed with an unbeaten 34 from 17 deliveries during their defeat to Rajputs on Wednesday. Batting in the middle-order, he made eight in both of his two other innings last week.

In a format that rewards quality death bowling throughout an innings, it was no surprise to see Phil’s Legends teammate, Chris Jordan recording tidy figures in his three outings. CJ went at just eight runs an over during matches over Rajputs and Pakhtoons, picking up two wickets against the Knights. He also took 1-10 from his over during the win against Kerala Knights, bagging the prized wicket of Chris Gayle. Earlier in that match, Chris gave a reminder of his ability with the bat, smashing 24 from seven balls from number seven at the end of the Legends’ innings.

Laurie Evans, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Tymal Mills and Phil Salt at Dubai Airport as they head home from a hectic ten days in the T10 League (Photo: Phil Salt)

Talking of tidy figures, Jofra Archer took the wickets of Lendl Simmons and Darren Sammy to finish with two for just 14 from two overs as his Sindhis team lost in a thriller against eventual champions the Warriors on Tuesday. On Thursday, Jofra was even more miserly, going at only six runs an over and getting rid of Jason Roy as Sindhis lost to Bengal Tigers. Things didn’t go quite as well in Sindhis’ final match, with Jofra’s one over costing eighteen runs. He wasn’t alone in going for runs, however, as a number of Sindhis’ bowlers were on the end of Alex Hales and Najibullah Zadran onslaught for Maratha Arabians, who won by nine wickets.

The Arabians made it into the eliminator finals, with Rashid Khan playing a big part in their progress. Against Rajputs on Tuesday, the leg-spinner ended with an economy rate that would have been perfectly respectable in a first-class match. His two overs cost seven runs, setting Arabians up for a thumping ten-wicket win. The next day, in the defeat against Pakhtoons, Rashid chipped in with 21 off seven balls (including an incredible helicopter shot for six), before bowling two wicketless overs for 18 runs.

Perhaps the Afghan’s most impressive performance came in their final group game. Rashid took 3-15 from his two overs, helping restricting Sindhis’ to 98-4 from their ten overs before Hales and Zadran knocked off the runs with nearly three overs to spare. Things went less well in the eliminator finals against Bengal Tigers and Northern Warriors, as Rashid took 1-39 and none for 31 in those two matches. Defeat against the Warriors, meant that the Arabians missed out on a place in the final, playing in Sunday’s third place play-off instead where the Tigers took revenge. Rashid ended with figures of 0-42.

Luke Wright was part of that Bengal Tigers team, but endured a lean week personally, with scores of four, nine and nought in the three games in which he batted.

Tymal Mills’ Rajputs side weren’t able to make it through to the latter stages, but the paceman did help his team to a 12-run victory over the Legends on Wednesday with 2-19 from his two overs. He also took 0-13 from one over against the Arabians on Tuesday and 0-10, again from a solitary over, as Rajputs fell short against the Warriors on Friday.

In South Africa’s Msanzi Super League, there were three matches for David Wiese who has signed to play the remainder of the tournament for Paarl Rocks. David took 1-16 in the win against Durban Heat on Wednesday, was the Rock’s most economical bowler with 1-24 and hit 18 off 16 during Friday’s defeat to the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants on Friday and took 1-33 during another win against the Heat on Sunday. After six matches, the Rocks are in fourth place in the table.

Big @David_Wiese breaks a big partnership at a vital stage in the game! 💜#PaarlRocks #MSLT20 pic.twitter.com/66qCm55x7s

— Paarl Rocks (@Paarl_Rocks) November 30, 2018

Danny Briggs continued his England Lions tour in the UAE, playing in a further three one-day matches against Pakistan last week. In the second match of the series on Tuesday, Danny was the most economical bowler on either side, taking 1-24 from his seven overs, as the Lions won by six wickets to level the series. The Lions made it 2-1 on Thursday and Danny scored eight at number ten before taking 1-52 from his ten overs as the tourists won by 22 runs. A devastating knock of 120 from 87 balls from Adil Amin made life difficult for the Lions bowlers on Sunday. Danny finished with 0-55 from six overs as Pakistan A racked up 335-4. Danny made 19 from 16 balls during the Lions’ unsuccessful chase. The team were skittled for 154 leaving the one-day series level with one match to play.

Over in Australia, Luke Wells scored his third Victorian Premier Cricket century in just six innings on Saturday. Having bowled ten tidy overs (0-38) to help his Casey-South Melbourne team restrict Greenvale Kangaroos to 200 for six from fifty overs. It then took Luke just 121 balls to reach 111 not out at the top of the innings and guide Casey to a seven-wicket victory. Luke is now averaging 93.4 this Australian summer and Casey are up to eighth in the eighteen-team Men’s Premier Firsts table.

Casey South Melb CC skipper Luke Wells could probably make runs with a toothpick this season. Reaches his century against Greenvale Kangaroos, to go with earlier scores of 121 and 154 in @vicpremcricket

— Paul Amy (@PaulAmy375) December 1, 2018

George Garton enjoyed a productive weekend in the same competition. He whacked a run-a-ball 15 as Northcote were dismissed for 227 in 49 overs, before his 1-18 from 6.5 overs helped bowl Monash Tigers out for just 141 to secure a comprehensive victory.

Also Down Under, the Women’s Big Bash League got underway over the weekend, with Melbourne Stars’ Georgia Elwiss the first Sussex player in action. She bowled three overs for 26 runs as the Stars recorded a seven-wicket win against Sydney Sixers in a high-scoring affair at Melbourne’s Junction Oval on Saturday.