Sussex look forward to for five-star display in Pakistan Super League

In this week;s Sussex Winter Watch, one Shark bows out of the Big Bash in Australia as another continues their campaign - and the Pakistan Super League auction sees Sussex players up for grabs for the 2021 season.
Rashid Khan has finished his latest Adelaide Strikers spell / Picture: GettyRashid Khan has finished his latest Adelaide Strikers spell / Picture: Getty
Rashid Khan has finished his latest Adelaide Strikers spell / Picture: Getty

Phil Salt and Rashid Khan continued Adelaide Strikers' Big Bash League campaign, starting the week by taking on struggling side Melbourne Renegades. While Salt and Rashid may not have made major impacts, the former scoring just eight and Rashid taking figures of 1-21 from his allocation, the Strikers were still able to run out comfortable winners, winning by 60 runs to stretch Renegades' losing run to seven games.

Going into the reverse fixture versus the Renegades at Adelaide, the Strikers would have been feeling confident, even more so after Salt scored his second BBL10 half-century of the campaign, finishing on 59. Rashid was dismissed for a golden duck as the Strikers finished on a strong total of 177/7.

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Rashid as ever was influential with the ball, finishing with figures of 2-24 from his four overs. However, he was unable to stop Afghanistan teammate Mohammed Nabi from teeing off as he guided the Renegades to a six-wicket win to end their winless run.

Ollie Robinson is impressing in the England Test squad in Sri Lanka / Picture: GettyOllie Robinson is impressing in the England Test squad in Sri Lanka / Picture: Getty
Ollie Robinson is impressing in the England Test squad in Sri Lanka / Picture: Getty

The Strikers final game of the week saw them take on Melbourne Stars in Rashid’s last game for the Strikers before international duty. Rashid made sure he went out with a bang taking figures of 2-29 including the wicket of Stars captain Glenn Maxwell first ball.

In the Strikers chase of 150, Salt contributed nicely with the bat, scoring 31 off 22 balls before being dismissed by Maxwell. Rashid saw his side home as he finished not out on four as the Strikers won by five wickets to move to third in the table.

Rashid had a busy week as he was involved in the auction for one of the world's premier T20 competitions, the Pakistan Super League. Sussex’s overseas stars for the 2021 season reunited early as Rashid joined David Wiese at Lahore Qalandars after the South African was retained by the franchise.

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Rashid’s teammate in Australia, Salt was also involved as he moved to Islamabad United, a side he played one game for in 2020. Salt was joined by a Sussex teammate as Chris Jordan moved from 2020 winners Karachi Kings to Islamabad.

The fifth Shark to join up in Pakistan is Ravi Bopara, who moved from Multan Sultans to Peshawar Zalmi. The competition begins on February 20 and runs until March 22.

Meanwhile Ollie Robinson impressed for England in their squad warm-up match for their tour of Sri Lanka. Playing for Joe Root’s XI, he shared the new ball with England legend James Anderson and despite bowling just four overs he readily impressed, having Dominic Sibley caught by Zak Crawley for one and bowling Sam Curran for 10.

With the rest of the game in Hambantota washed out, Robinson finished with figures of 2-15, a handy reminder to the selectors ahead of the start of the two-match Test series with Sri Lanka on Thursday (Jan 14).

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