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Sophie Devine started and ended the Super Over with sixes as New Zealand hunted down 16 to seal the series and break West Indies’ hearts in the fourth T20I in North Sound. Devine faced all but one ball in the Super Over, bowled by West Indies captain Hayley Matthews, and ushered New Zealand home under pressure.How did it even come down to a Super Over? West Indies were cruising 52 for 2 in the tenth over chasing 112. Wicketkeeper-batter Rashada Williams’ run-out triggered a collapse as the hosts lost their last seven wickets for 59 runs to level the scores in regular time. Hayley Jensen, who was also recently in action in the Caribbean for Trinbago Knight Riders Women, took the wickets of Chedean Nation and Afy Fletcher in a three-run final over to drag the game into overtime.Super Overs are a familiar territory for Devine. She has hit 87 runs off 26 balls in Super Overs being dismissed. Devine had also contributed handsomely with the ball by removing West Indies’ top three.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Much like Devine, Matthews had played a role with both bat and ball – she even did the dual job in the Super Over. She helped West Indies score 15 in the Super Over, bowled by Jensen, but her all-round effort went in vain.After having been asked to bat, New Zealand had lost both Devine and Suzie Bates early. However, Amelia Kerr’s unbeaten 49 off 47 balls hauled them to 111. Amelia and previous match-winner Maddy Green (14 off 13 balls) were the only New Zealand batters to strike at over 100. Fletcher was the pick of the bowlers for West Indies, returning 2 for 16 in her four overs.Amelia’s sister Jess and Jensen picked up two wickets each to assist Devine pull off a stunning win.The fifth – and final T20I – will be played at the same venue on Thursday.

In the chase against New Zealand on Saturday, Sri Lanka had lost their top three for five runs, inside two overs. By the halfway stage they had lost six. Against Namibia, early in the tournament too, their top order had fallen in a heap. The key for Sri Lanka, assistant coach Naveed Nawaz said, was to keep wickets in hand through the early overs, even if they didn’t score many runs.Because that’s exactly the strategy that helped them overcome Afghanistan on Tuesday. After six overs, Sri Lanka were only 28 for 1, hitting just four fours in the powerplay. After 10 overs, Sri Lanka were scoring at barely 10 an over but had lost only two wickets.The remaining 82 runs required for victory then took only 51 balls to get – Dhananjaya de Silva in particular raising the tempo, after the foundation had been laid. Sri Lanka strolled to a target of 145 with nine balls, and six wickets to spare.”We’ve been talking about losing less wickets during the powerplay as well as the first ten overs,” Nawaz said after the match. “If you look at the pattern that’s building in most teams, the number of runs that you get in the first ten overs has been far less than in the subcontinent. And the number of runs you get at the bottom end has been quite a bit.”That’s been our plan during this World Cup. Whenever we had a good opening stand, or someone taking responsibility from the top, we’ve done well.”Against Afghanistan, Sri Lanka were especially wary of losing wickets to Mujeeb Ur Rahman. He dismissed Pathum Nissanka with a near-unplayable delivery, but Sri Lanka were clearly happy to play him out and wait for easier overs down the line. Mujeeb took 1 for 11 in his three powerplay overs, but his last over went for 13 runs.”We knew that Mujeeb’s going to bowl at least two overs in the powerplay,” Nawaz said. “So the plan was, even if we got less runs – somewhere around 25 to 30 in the first six overs – not to panic, and to keep wickets in hand. Once their main bowlers were bowled out, there were many bowlers we were thinking were gettable. We knew we were chasing 140, which is not a big total, and we could always get there.”De Silva, who guided Sri Lanka through the chase with his 66 not out off 42, made his first half-century of the tournament. In fact, it was his third T20I fifty, despite his having batted mostly in the top four (23 previous innings). De Silva is in the team because of what he adds with the ball, as well as in the field. But Sri Lanka hope this was a breakthrough innings. It was his highest score in this format.”Yes, I think it’s a relief that Dhananjaya is coming into runs,” Nawaz said. “He’s always shown potential, hitting 30s, 40s, and 20s all the time. But I think it’s good to see him finishing a game and coming through that game, 60-plus not out.”

Steven Smith has called David Warner’s lifetime ban from leadership “fundamentally wrong” and conceded that the lengthy saga of trying to get it overturned had been a distraction for him.Warner dropped a dramatic statement on the eve of the second Test against West Indies in Adelaide when he announced he would be withdrawing from the process implemented by Cricket Australia after they had rewritten their code of conduct to allow Warner to appeal the ban.Related

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“From my point of view, banning for life from leadership is just fundamentally wrong,” Smith said after Australia’s 419-run victory. “David served his time like I did. For us, we know he’s a leader around the group, and on and off the field he’s doing a tremendous job. “Warner, and CA, had wanted a private hearing in front of the independent panel but the commissions ruled that it should be held in public which Warner argued would have become a “lynching” and he wasn’t willing to put his family and team-mates through a retrial of the events at Newlands in 2018.Nick Hockley, the CA chief executive, defended the organisation’s handling of the situation, saying the independent panel was needed for transparency and was “disappointed” Warner had withdrawn. However, Todd Greenberg, his counterpart at the Australian Cricketers’ Association, argued Warner had been left with no choice and expressed the frustration that CA had not handled the appeal themselves.”It’s been a difficult one for him, it’s been a difficult week,” Smith said. “It has been more of a distraction for Davey, no doubt, going through that himself. David has said he’s done and dusted and get on with it. He’s got our full support. Hopefully he can have a really big series for us against South Africa with the bat.”Warner made 21 and 28 in the second Test – after making 5 and 48 in Perth – to continue a lean run in Test cricket over the last two years where he is averaging just 28.12 without a century. He is due to play his 100th Test against South Africa in Melbourne at the end of the month, but questions are being asked as to whether he should be part of the tours to India and England where his record is poor with averages of 24.25 and 26.04 respectively.In the series against West Indies, Warner has twice been out inside-edging the ball onto his stumps•Associated Press

“I didn’t realise it was that lean, to be honest,” former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, speaking on on Saturday, said of Warner’s recent record. “Coming on for two years for a Test-match century. Four half-centuries in his last 26 innings.”You talk about how things are getting tougher for Warner with the attack the South Africans have got. Well, it’s never easy in India either. We know what wickets we will get there. We will get turning pitches. No doubt. It’s never been easy for any Australian batsman going there and trying to play in those conditions. Then on the back of that, what’s after that? The Ashes, in England as well. We will get conditions that will suit [Stuart] Broad, [James] Anderson and [Ollie] Robinson.”Smith, however, believed that more than anything Warner needed a change of luck to see the big runs return. One thing perhaps in his favour is that South Africa are among his most productive opponents with an average of 52.26 from 12 Tests including four centuries although that dips to 40.18 in Australia.His dismissals in this series have been inside edges driving against Alzarri Joseph and Roston Chase, a nick to the keeper chasing a wide delivery, and a bat-pad catch to short leg.”Davey’s a once-in-a-generation player, he’s arguably the best-ever opener for Australia,” he said. “The way he’s able to put pressure on bowlers from the outset helps everyone down the order as well.”He’s been an incredible player for a long period of time, his record suggest that. There’s no reason why he can’t have a big series for us coming this week as well. He’s batting nicely. He hasn’t had a great deal of luck lately either, it seems like every time he gets an inside edge, it goes onto the stumps. A lot of the time when you’re scoring runs you need some luck.”For me it’s in his body language the way he goes out there – he’s really positive and just in a good frame of mind. Particularly yesterday when he went out to bat he was in a good frame of mind, the way his feet were moving was really sharp.”

After a starring role where he claimed his 200th Test wicket in style, captain Pat Cummins resisted making West Indies follow on late on day three as Australia strengthened their big lead in the first Test at Optus Stadium.Cummins and Mitchell Starc ran through West Indies with the second new ball in the final session, as Australia gained a huge first innings lead of 315 runs.Wickets came in a rush after Australia had toiled against determined West Indies’ batting on a surface lacking the venom expected. With Cummins preferring a rest for his bowlers, Australia faced 11 overs before stumps but lost opener Usman Khawaja who was caught behind off quick Kemar Roach.Related

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Amid lengthening shadows from the towering grandstands, perhaps inspired by England’s ballistic batting against Pakistan in the concurrent Test in Rawalpindi, opener David Warner started with consecutive boundaries.It was a sign of what should be ahead early on day four as Australia seeks quick runs before a likely declaration. Warner, however, will be looking to cash in after a failure in the first innings continued a lean patch in Test cricket.Cummins led a well-balanced attack with wickets shared around the frontline bowlers. Australia’s quicks successfully reverted to hitting better lengths after a short-ball strategy late on day two was unfruitful.After lunch, Cummins knocked over captain Kraigg Brathwaite with a pearler to memorably celebrate his 200th wicket. Playing his 44th Test, Cummins became the fifth fastest to the landmark from an Australian behind only Clarrie Grimmett (36), Dennis Lillee (38), Stuart MacGill (41) and Shane Warne (42).His Test bowling average of 21.50 moved him fractionally ahead of Glenn McGrath as the lowest for Australians with at least 200 wickets.Cummins claimed two more with the second new ball after tea as West Indies’ defiance came crashing down. Starc did the damage initially when he trapped Jermaine Blackwood lbw with a full delivery, which was upheld on review in an umpire’s call. He then cleaned up Josh Da Silva with a trademark full delivery, as Starc started to menacingly conjure swing.Allrounder Cameron Green picked up his first Test wicket at home when he had concussion substitute Shamarh Brooks caught behind. It was a good reward for Green, who in his home Test debut didn’t bat in Australia’s first innings, after threatening earlier in the day with sharp pace and conjuring bounce with his towering height.A searing Green bouncer hit the helmet of No. 3 Nkrumah Bonner, who batted for another 40 minutes in the morning session before eventually being ruled out with concussion and replaced by Brooks.Pat Cummins goes up in appeal•Getty Images

Cummins had earlier summoned a mighty spell after lunch to prove there was some spice lurking in the much discussed green-tinged surface. He led an Australian attack who worked over a determined West Indies batting order with three wickets in the middle session.It dashed West Indies’ hopes of batting for the long haul in their daunting task of hauling in Australia’s mammoth first innings of 598 for 4.Heading into the match, West Indies had set a target of batting at least 100 overs, which they almost achieved but it was nearly not enough after such a listless bowling and fielding effort.They had started impressively against the odds with a 78-run partnership between Brathwaite and debutant Tagenarine Chanderpaul, whose eye-catching 79-ball knock ended in the first over of the day when he nicked Josh Hazlewood to first slip.Chanderpaul had one ball earlier notched his half-century with a lucky boundary through slips but Brathwaite continued to play a strong rearguard to blunt Australia’s accurate attack.Brathwaite, however, could do little to thwart a gem from his opposite number as Cummins enjoyed another memorable performance.

Isle of Man were skittled out for 10, the lowest total in men’s T20s by Spain on on Sunday. It then took Spain all of two balls to chase the score down as they romped home to a near-perfect ten-wicket win with 118 balls remaining.Isle of Man fell below Sydney Thunder, who had slumped to 15 all out in 5.5 overs against Adelaide Strikers in the BBL earlier this year. Turkey had previously held the lowest score in T20s when they were bundled out for 21 against Czech Republic in 2019.Coming into Cartagena with an unassailable 4-0 lead in a six-match series after the second T20I was washed out, hosts Spain did not put a foot wrong. Mohammad Kamran and Atif Mehmood picked up four wickets each, with three maidens and ten runs between them in a collective eight-over spell. Kamran’s spell also included a hat-trick as Isle of Man were rolled over in no time. Lorne Burns followed the left-arm seamers to finish off the innings four balls into the ninth over.After the hosts chose to field, Kamran set the tone by nicking off Adam McAuley off the first ball. Mehmood trapped George Burrows lbw and Kamran picked up a hat-trick run in the next over by knocking over Luke Ward, Edward Beard, and Christian Webster to reduce the score to 5 for 4.Mehmood followed with a double-wicket over which included the wicket of Joseph Burrows, the top scorer of the innings with four runs. Fraser Clarke’s duck was the fifth among the seven in total, but he faced 12 balls that stretched the innings into the ninth over, where Burns’ clean-up job completed the innings.In reply, Joseph started with a no-ball to Awais Ahmed. While that didn’t go for runs, the free hit and the following ball were smashed over the boundary to seal a remarkable win and a 5-0 sweep.

Lucknow Super Giants 257 for 5 (Stoinis 72, Mayers 54, Pooran 45, Badoni 43, Rabada 2-52) beat Punjab Kings 201 (Taide 66, Thakur 4-37, Naveen 3-30, Bishnoi 2-41) by 56 runsMarcus Stoinis: 72 off 40 balls. Kyle Mayers: 54 from 24. Nicholas Pooran: 45 off 19. Ayush Badoni: 43 from 24. Their contributions led Lucknow Super Giants to 257 for 5, the highest total this IPL season, and the second highest in the tournament’s history.Punjab Kings fought hard to get past 200 themselves, with Atharva Taide slamming a 36-ball 66, but they were never really in contention to reach an improbable target. Super Giants won by 56 runs in the end, and their net-run-rate boost lifted them from fourth to second on the points table.LSG’s hitting was awe-inspiring: their batters combined to hit 27 fours and 14 sixes, ensuring the statisticians had a busy night.Marcus Stoinis goes one-handed•Associated Press

Mayers gets the party started

The entertainment began when Mayers clubbed Arshdeep Singh for four fours in the second over. Next over, he deposited a free hit from debutant Gurnoor Brar for six over midwicket. When PBKS introduced spin, Mayers went 6, 4, 6 off Sikandar Raza in the fifth over. He was dismissed with one ball left in the powerplay, but by then he’d already scored 54 – the most by a batter in the first six overs this season. LSG ended that phase at 72 for 2.

Unstoppable Stoinis

In seven previous innings this season, Stoinis had been dismissed for 21 or less five times, including a duck in his last game against Chennai Super Kings. But when he’s got into his groove, LSG have prospered. He’d slammed 65 off 30 in a successful chase of 213 against Royal Challengers Bangalore, and here in Mohali Stoinis was similarly brutal.It began with a free-hit off the second legal ball of the eighth over, which Stoinis flicked for six off Gurnoor. The next ball was driven for four, and Stoinis was away. In the tenth over, he guided Sam Curran for four behind point; and when the bowler tried a slower delivery, he put him away with a short-arm pull.There was a life in the 13th over when Liam Livingstone’s left foot tickled the rope while he caught Stoinis on the long-off boundary, off Rahul Chahar. Stoinis soon reached fifty from 31 balls, his innings of 72 eventually featuring five sixes.

Badoni and Pooran keep the fireworks going

The bowlers had no respite when Stoinis was off strike. Badoni put on 89 for the third wicket with Stoinisk and struck three fours and three sixes while rushing along at a strike rate close to 180. His dismissal in the 14th over brought Pooran to the crease, and he immediately hit Liam Livingstone for three successive fours.Pooran’s 45 off 19 featured just a solitary six, a swivel-pull that sailed high over fine leg, but there were seven fours, most of them timed beautifully through gaps in the outfield, with a late squeeze behind point of Arshdeep standing out.Atharva Taide attempts to ramp the ball•Associated Press

Taide fights, but PBKS fall well short

Sent in at No. 3 after Shikhar Dhawan departed in the first over, Taide kept ticking along as his partners came and went. Taide made 31 of the 47 runs PBKS scored in the first five overs, including five boundaries, including a leg-side hoick, a drive past mid-off, and a slap through point off one Avesh Khan over, and he followed up with a big six off Amit Mishra soon after the powerplay.Taide got to his half-century from 26 deliveries to start the tenth over, but by then PBKS’ required rate was already threatening to touch 16 an over. And when Taide departed after miscuing a slog-sweep off Ravi Bishnoi, PBKS needed a near-impossible 131 from seven overs, with six wickets in hand.Livingstone, Curran and Jitesh Sharma kept the boundary count rising – there were 67 in all, eventually, the joint second-most in an IPL game – but the contest was done and dusted by then.

India captain Rohit Sharma is disappointed at the process followed by third umpire Richard Kettleborough in deciding to rule Shubman Gill out in the final innings of the WTC final on Saturday. Rohit feels the third umpire could have taken more time and looked at more angles before arriving at his decision.”I just felt disappointed. I mean, the third umpire should have seen a little more replays, a little more of, you know, how the catch has been held,” Rohit said after India’s 209-run loss early on Sunday. “I think it was three or four times he saw, and he was convinced with it. It’s not about whether it was given out or not out, you need to have a proper and clear information about anything. It’s just not about the catch, it can be about anything.”Related

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Gill was out jabbing to gully where Cameron Green took a low catch diving to his left to end a threatening opening stand of 41 in India’s chase of 444. The decision was referred upstairs, and in the absence of a soft signal, which has now been done away with, Kettleborough went through a number of replays before ruling in Australia’s favour.”That was, that is something that I was a little disappointed with – the decision was made quite quickly,” Rohit said. “When a catch like that has been taken, you need to be more than 100% sure because it’s a final and we were at that important stage of the game as well. So that was to me a little disappointing.”Rohit Sharma feels the third umpire should have watched more replays, from more angles, before coming to his decision on Green’s catch•Getty Images

The replays on the broadcast seemed to lose a bit of action between frames, between Green catching the ball with his fingers underneath it, as he fell to the turf, and then throwing it up in celebration. The big question at the time was whether the ball touched the ground when his hand hit the turf.”More camera angles should have been shown,” Rohit went on. “There was only one or two camera angles that were shown. We’ve got more angles in IPL. We’ve got 10 different angles in IPL. I don’t know why in a world event like this, there was no ultra motion that was seen or any kind of zoomed image was seen. That is what I was a little disappointed with.”Australia captain Pat Cummins, though, was more than satisfied with the process followed, and suggested that Kettleborough was the best umpire in the world, when asked his thoughts on the catch. He was also asked about Green being booed by a section of the Indian fans.”Passionate fans,” Cummins said. “But I thought it was a fair catch. Green was an absolute screamer and obviously we’re just players, we’re out on the field so we leave it in the umpire’s hands and personally, probably the best umpire in the world, he knows the rule books, he’s seen every angle. I’d probably back his decision more so than emotional, passionate fans that are looking on a big screen from 100 meters away.”Cummins in a way echoed former Australia captain Ricky Ponting’s views. “When I saw it live, I knew it had carried to him on the full, but I wasn’t sure what the action was after that from all replays we have seen,” he told the ICC. “I actually think some part of the ball did touch the ground and it is the interpretation of the umpire that as long as the fielder has complete control of the ball before the ball hits the ground then it is out. That must have been what the umpires’ interpretation was and I think that is exactly what happened. It carried probably six or eight inches off the ground then there was another action after that.”

The Ashes are still alive. England’s batters clinched a three-wicket win in a white-knuckled run chase at Headingley, led by Harry Brook’s 75 on his home ground before Chris Woakes and Mark Wood took them across the line.Australia, who would have sealed a first away Ashes win since 2001 with victory, struck regularly on the fourth day to leave England in serious trouble at 171 for 6. Mitchell Starc was the spearhead, taking two wickets either side of lunch – including the middle-order engine room of Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow.Brook and Woakes added 59 for the seventh wicket, England’s highest partnership of the match, before Starc’s fifth wicket – Brook top-edging to cover – gave Australia another sniff. But Wood, whose five-wicket haul in the first innings set the game up for England, joined Woakes and iced the run chase.Wood hooked Pat Cummins over fine leg for six, then cleared his front leg to blast Starc through cover and take the requirement down to single figures. With four to win, he survived a top-edged swipe off Starc, Alex Carey unable to cling on after scrambling back towards the boundary rope and diving at full stretch onto his front.Then, with scores tied, Woakes opened the face and scythed Starc through point for four, holding his arms aloft in celebration before embracing Wood. The pair’s all-round exploits over the last four days have kept England alive in the series: they are two-one down heading into the fourth Test at Old Trafford on July 19.There is a nine-day break before the start of that Test, one for which both teams will be grateful after another exhausting, exhilarating day which saw both teams let control of the game slip from their grasp. Australia were behind for much of the game but it took until Brook’s partnership with Woakes for England to assert their dominance on the chase. Even then, there was a twist – but it came late enough for them to scrape home.Mitchell Starc made crucial breakthroughs either side of lunch•AFP/Getty Images

England needed a further 224 runs to win at the start of the fourth day but lost a wicket in the fifth over of the morning: Ben Duckett was smashed on the shin by Starc, falling over to the off side. His review could not save him, with ball-tracking projecting that the ball would have crashed into his leg stump.Unexpectedly, it was Moeen Ali who walked out at No. 3, after Brook had deputised for the injured Ollie Pope in that role in the first innings. The experiment did not last long – Starc ripped out Moeen’s leg stump with a 90mph/144kph rocket – but gave the illusion of extending England’s batting line-up and crucially, allowed Brook to return to No. 5.Related

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Joe Root traded boundaries with Zak Crawley either side of drinks but never settled, and a change of ball in the 19th over brought a wicket in the 20th. Crawley crunched Mitchell Marsh through the off side with a trademark cover drive, but Marsh’s next ball was a fraction shorter and drew the outside edge.Brook played positively from the outset, spanking Scott Boland through cover-point for consecutive boundaries, but his stand with Root was a brief one. Cummins dug one in short, angling down the leg side, which Root attempted to pull but gloved through to Alex Carey. It was not Cummins’ best ball but extended his remarkable dominance in his head-to-head battle with Root.Stokes, no stranger to a Headingley run chase, calmly worked his first ball away through the leg side for four but was strangled down the leg side in the second over after lunch, flicking Starc through to Carey to fall for just 13. Starc smiled wryly, exerting his considerable influence on a second successive Test.Bairstow joined Brook, who had reached 42 after a handful of false shots early in his innings, but did not last long. He inside-edged his sixth ball for four, past his leg stump, then chopped his eighth onto his middle stump, beaten by Starc’s movement back into him; after 78 on the opening day of the series, Bairstow has added 63 runs across his next five innings.Jonny Bairstow looks back after dragging a drive onto his stumps•AFP/Getty Images

Australia sensed an opening. They were four wickets away and Woakes hardly exuded calm early on, regularly playing and missing and picking up boundaries via both edges of the bat. But with Cummins reluctant to introduce Todd Murphy – who bowled only two overs on the last day – Australia were reliant on their three main seamers.Brook brought up a 67-ball half-century, his second in successive Tests, but both batters continued to keep Australia’s fielders interested, particularly when facing the short ball. Top-edges looped up tantalisingly without going to hand, and ball regularly beat bat before the drinks break.Brook crunched boundaries away through point off Cummins and the lesser-spotted Murphy, but was rushed by Starc’s short ball and spooned a catch to cover via the top edge, trudging off with 21 runs still required. But It took England only 14 balls to knock them off.Murphy’s brilliant parry on the midwicket boundary denied Woakes a certain boundary, but Wood – fuelled by adrenaline – took on Cummins’ bouncer and swiped him into the Football Stand for six. When Wood crunched Starc through cover, England were close; when Woakes slashed him through point, they had their first Ashes win in four years.

Former South Africa batter Hashim Amla has been appointed batting coach of the Johannesburg-based Lions for the next three years. Amla joins former South Africa coach Russell Domingo at the Wanderers and replaces Michael Smith, who has moved to the Big Bash. Domingo is also new to the role and took over from Wandile Gwavu, who is the South African’s men’s white-ball fielding coach.This is Amla’s first role with a provincial team in South Africa after he had served as batting consultant for MI Cape Town in the SA20 and in the same role for the Cape Town Blitz in the now-defunct Mzansi Super League. His move into full-time coaching comes in the same year that he last played the game; Amla featured in two matches for the World Giants in the Masters Legends League earlier this year, but has retired from all other forms of the game.”I am truly delighted to work with Lions Cricket. They are one of the largest Protea producing teams in the country and to work with their players is an honour,” Amla said in a statement issued by the Lions on Wednesday. “The head coach Russel Domingo and I go back many years: I had him as a coach whilst with the Proteas and his experience as an international coach is something I am eager to team up with and share in.”Amla’s duties begin with immediate effect, with South Africa’s domestic teams in pre-season training though the fixtures for the 2023-24 season are yet to be announced. All eight division one teams are expected to play seven first-class games, compete in the fifty-over one-day cup and to play a T20 competition. The Lions are among South Africa’s more successful franchises and have won five titles in the last four seasons.

Tom Bruce, the New Zealand A captain, lauded his team’s “relentless and fearless” style of cricket after they secured a 2-0 win over Australia A in the four-day series.The visitors won the opening match in Brisbane by 225 runs, despite being 79 for 7 and bowled out for 147 on the first day, then claimed the pink-ball encounter in Mackay by 68 runs after Bruce’s unbeaten century at set up the fourth innings in a game where they lost wicketkeeper Mitch Hay to a fractured wrist after the opening day.This success follows the 1-0 win in the corresponding series staged in New Zealand during April, although Bruce believed the Australians dominated in those two matches staged in Lincoln and he said it was a motivation to perform better on this tour.Related

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• Sutherland to lead Australia A after being named Victoria's new Shield skipper

“I look at the Lincoln series, yes we won 1-0 but I think we were outplayed on seven out of eight days,” Bruce told ESPNcricinfo. “We were able to chase down a big total, so credit for doing that, but we were probably behind the eight-ball throughout.”It was a bit of a motivation for a lot of the guys coming here, we knew it was going to be tough and we thought we hadn’t put our best foot forward in Lincoln. We wanted to turn the tide and give ourselves a chance to win a series.””The most pleasing thing has been the way we’ve gone about our cricket. We’ve been pretty aggressive, pretty fearless, particularly after that day one at Allan Border [Field] where we certainly turned it around and showed a lot of character.”That [first game] could have gone one of two ways; you could fall over and lose that game after the first innings and then the tour might be different, but there was lot of character in the dressing and a lot of belief that we could turn it around. From that perspective it’s more pleasing that we’ve just played an aggressive, relentless style of cricket.”Sean Solia had a fine all-round series•Getty Images

Bruce topped the New Zealand A scoring with 221 runs in the two matches, while other standout contributions came from Scott Kuggeleijn, who struck an 85-ball hundred in Brisbane and claimed 13 wickets overall, along with Sean Solia who made 198 runs opening the batting and claimed nine wickets at 12.55.”[Sean] plays a really tough role and does it for his Auckland side as well,” Bruce said. “He was better than a fourth seamer here…there have been times [for Auckland] when he’s opened the batting and bowling in four-day cricket. He’s cool, calm and collected. Nothing really fazes him. I know he would have loved to have ticked off a hundred in that first game, but his performances can’t be underestimated and he’s only getting better.”Another player to catch the eye was tall 22-year-old pace bowler William O’Rourke who had featured once in Lincoln earlier in the year and came into the side for the day-night match in Mackay. It was just his 13th first-class outing, but he troubled the Australia A batters with his bounce, twice getting captain Nathan McSweeney caught in the slips.”He’s still young, only been around a couple of years, and there’s so much growth,” Bruce said. “Thought he was outstanding. He put in a few spells that were pretty menacing and looked very uncomfortable to bat against. Looking at it from the slip cordon, you knew how good it was. He’s certainly a kid with a bright future so long as he stays fit. He’s a big, tall lad, extracts a lot of bounce and has this uncanny ability to swing the ball away but also nip it back in.”Bruce himself is one of the players who has had a taste of international cricket, playing the most recent of his 17 T20Is in early 2020. His century in Mackay was the ninth of his first-class career and took him over 5000 runs at an average nudging 50, but he remains realistic about his chances of returning to the top level.”The ambition is always there,” he said. “As batters you a constantly learning and growing. I probably was thrust in when I was quite young and didn’t know my game as well, and it was T20, completely different to what I’m performing well at now which is red-ball cricket.”We are in a pretty good era of Blackcaps as well, there’s a lot of depth, probably as good as ever, certainly since I’ve been playing. Even though I’m scoring runs there’s probably guys ahead of me in the pecking order. There’s always hope but it’s not at the forefront of my mind when you know there are a load of other players stacked around you and at a similar age.”The tour of Australia concludes with three one-day matches, the first in Mackay on Sunday followed by two in Brisbane.