Reigning Allan Border medalist Steve Smith has enjoyed a fruitful return to domestic one-day cricket.
Reigning Allan Border medalist Steve Smith has enjoyed a fruitful return to domestic one-day cricket, scoring a century against Victoria in the opening fixture of the Marsh Cup.
The former Australian skipper’s stroke play was on full display at North Sydney Oval as he played a composed innings of 127 off 124 balls before being dismissed in the penultimate over of the first innings, thanks to a brilliant catch from Matthew Short.
The Blues were in an early hole at 3-30, before Smith held down one end while a rotating cast contributed powerful cameos at the other.
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Smith’s Aussie teammate Pat Cummins came agonisingly close to a personal milestone in his captaincy debut, being dismissed for 49.
Ollie Davies, 20, made the most of his List A debut, smacking 57 off just 41 balls.
Sean Abbott and Kurtis Patterson chipped in with quickfire scores of 31 and 23, respectively.
A star-studded Blues line-up were without David Warner, Josh Hazlewood or Mitchell Starc, but managed to set an imposing score of 9-318 for Victoria to chase in what will be a crucial match in the whirlwind, two-month competition.
Every win will be vital with each state only playing each other once, with no semi-finals.
The top two will go straight to a final on April 11th.
More to come…
Cricket