www.ntnews.com.au Friday, December 27, 2013. NT NEWS. 35

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Usman’s exit makesThunder a whimper

CRICKET

By JAMESMacSMITH

Sydney Thunder batsman Usman Khawaja will miss most of the Big Bash with a hamstring injury Picture: MARK EVANS

BIG BASH—WEEK TWO

TONIGHT: Sydney Thunder v Adelaide Strikers (ANZ Stadium)TOMORROW: Brisbane Heat v Hobart Hurricanes (Gabba)SUNDAY: Sydney Sixers v Melbourne Stars (SCG)

USMAN Khawaja is set tomiss the majority of the sum-mer’s domestic Twenty20tournament with a hamstringinjury in a blow to the strug-gling Sydney Thunder.

The Thunder’s leading run-scorer in last season’s BigBash League, Khawaja is ex-pected to be ruled out for thenext fortnight as the strug-gling franchise stare down a14-game losing streak that hasspanned three summers.

The former Test No.3 suf-fered the injury while fieldingin last Saturday’s loss to theSydney Sixers.

Khawaja’s opening partnerDavid Warner, in action atthe Boxing Day Test, will alsomiss the Thunder’s second-round match against the Ade-laide Strikers on Friday nightat ANZ Stadium.

But Thunder coach Chandi-ka Hathurusinghe was putt-ing a brave face on his side’slatest setback on Thursday.

‘‘Unfortunately, he (Kh-awaja) is not ready. It willprobably be two weeks but wewill examine him again be-fore then,’’ Hathurusinghetold reporters.

‘‘Players of the calibre ofDavid Warner and Usman arehard to replace. We knewDavid Warner would not beplaying many games for usbut Usman is a surprise.

‘‘But we have a few goodplayers in the side who haveto step it up.’’

After Friday’s fixture, theThunder play five games be-tween January 1 and 14, andKhawaja could miss all ofthose. Their next and finalgame is against the Sixers onJanuary 25.

Captain Michael Husseyand their key overseas re-cruit, England limited-oversrepresentative Eoin Morgan,failed in their first outings forthe Thunder but Hathurusin-ghe was confident the sidecould end their losing streak.

‘‘Players of that calibredon’t fail too often,’’ he said.

‘‘We can’t change what hashappened in the past. Therewere a few positives in thatfirst game and we are confid-ent going forward.’’

Hathurusinghe nominatedStriker Alex Hales, ranked asthe world’s No.1 T20 batsman,as a player the Thunder needto contain if they are to win.

Flippingdifficulttoss callCRICKET

ByROGERVAUGHAN

THE saying goes in cricketthat if you win the toss,nine times out of 10 you bat.

The 10th time, you thinkabout sending in your op-position, then bat anyway.

Certainly Australiancaptain Michael Clarkedidn’t sound convincingwhen he decided to bowlfirst yesterday in the Box-ing Day Ashes Test.

It was the fourth toss ina row that he has won andthe first time in the seriesClarke has decided to takethe bigger risk.

‘‘I can’t believe I’m say-ing this, we’re going tohave a bowl first,’’ Clarkesaid after the toss.

His thinking was thatwith a green tinge in thepitch and muggy, overcastweather, the conditionsmight be perfect for his in-form bowling attack toslice through England’stop order.

By tea the jury was outon whether he had madethe right choice.

The first session went toEngland at 1-71, but twowickets before tea and thetourists’ poor batting formthroughout this Ashesseries meant Australiawere in a reasonable pos-ition at 3-135.

English star KevinPietersen, who declaredpre-game that he was asgood as gold, was settlingin nicely at 24.

Shane Watson’s injurybefore tea also will leaveAustralia a bowler shortfor the rest of the Test.

Certainly England cap-tain Alastair Cook soundedhappy enough to bat first.

It was one of thosestrange situations wherethis was a good toss to lose,because the decision wasnot at all clear-cut.

Clarke has a good his-tory here — he’s sent theopposition in five times asAustralian Test captain forthree wins, a loss and adraw. But Ashes historyshows it is also a call thatcan backfire spectacularly.

Think Ricky Ponting atEdgbaston in 2005, or Nas-ser Hussain in Brisbanethree years earlier, or BobWillis at Adelaide Oval in1982. All of them brave de-cisions to field first, allending up as losses, allroundly criticised.

If the series was stillalive, would Clarke havebeen so bold? No wonderhe looked nervous.

Hafeez ton helps Pakistan to series lead over sluggish Sri LankaCRICKET

By SHAHIDHASHMI

MOHAMMAD Hafeeznotched his third hundred ofthe series and off-spinnerSaeed Ajmal grabbed fourwickets to help Pakistanbeat Sri Lanka by eightwickets in the fourthone-day international.

Hafeez on Wednesday fin-ished with 113 not out for hisninth one-day hundred as

Pakistan knocked off theirmodest 226-run target in the42nd over to take an unbeat-able 3-1 lead ahead of today’sfifth and final match.

Pakistan had restricted SriLanka to 225 all out in 48.5overs with Ajmal (4-39) andpaceman Umar Gul (3-37)sharing the spoils.

Hafeez, who hit hundredsin Pakistan’s two wins in thefirst and third matches inSharjah, pushed Tillakaratne

Dilshan for his 12th boundaryto complete three figures,raising his bat and blowing akiss to his wife in the stands.

Hafeez became the sixthbatsman in all one-day crick-et to hit three tons in onebilateral series.

In all Hafeez hit two sixesand 12 boundaries off 119balls, and Sohaib Maqsoodfinished with a 56-ball 46not out with a six andfour boundaries.

Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad(44) put Pakistan on trackduring a solid 84-run stand af-ter opener Sharjeel Khan wasdismissed for 13.

Maqsood and Hafeez sharedan unbroken 111-run standfor the third wicket.

This becomes Pakistan’sseventh one-day series win inthe year — their best in a cal-endar year, beating the sixseries win record achievedin 2011.

‘‘It was a really pleasingperformance by the team,’’said Pakistan captainMisbah-ul-Haq.

‘‘A series win gives us moreconfidence and delight. Ithink Gul set the tone rightfrom the start, getting wicketswith the new ball, and every-one else is really bowling andbatting well,’’ he said.

Sri Lankan skipper AngeloMathews blamed lack of ap-plication for his side’s defeat.

‘‘We didn’t do very well inall departments. They playedgood cricket and were far bet-ter than us, so they deservedto win,’’ he said.

Mathews opted to bat afterwinning the toss on a flatSheikh Zayed Stadium pitch.

Gul removed openers KusalPerera (eight), TillakaratneDilshan (eight) and DineshChandimal (five) to reduceSri Lanka to 36-3 before Ajmaltightened the screws.