Rain pain for Canes in fizzer

Two scalps, then a downpour

THE Hurricanes picked up their first Big Bash point in four matches last night and while it wasn’t a breakthrough victory it also ensured their faint finals hopes remain alive.

Just 6.4 overs unfolded at the SCG before heavy rain hit, leaving Hobart and the Sydney Sixers to share the spoils.

After three consecutive defeats it at least halted the spiral down the ladder and arguably could become a crucial point for the side.

Hobart moves within two points of equal fifth-placed outfits Sydney Thunder and Adelaide Strikers, who it meets in three of its four remaining games.

“The point is handy because we come out of this game knowing we are in the same scenario, we are alive in the tournament,” captain Matthew Wade said.

“If we had lost this game it would have been a very tricky situation.

“It is a pretty simple scenario for us, we have got to find some momentum and Twenty20 cricket can change pretty quickly. Hopefully that little start we had tonight will roll on to the next game. We can get some confidence out of that as a team.

“Sometimes it just takes one shot as a batter and as a team and bowling unit, five overs can turn your tournament around.

“We have to find some momentum and when we get it, run with it as hard as we can.”

Wade won the bat flip and elected to field — feeling it could be advantageous bowling first with the predicted storms likely to shorten the contest — and the Hurricanes picked up two early wickets to grab control.

Spinner Clive Rose, who went wicketless through the first seven games, struck first when he beat Josh Philippe in flight and had the dangerous striker stumped, before Scott

Boland removed James Vince caught behind.

The Sixers were 2-45 when the rain became too heavy, and it never abated to allow a resumption.

Wade praised the efforts of Rose, who has improved in each of the past three games while taking on a tough role in the powerplay.

“I am really proud of the way Clive has taken to this tournament. He had to work really hard, he was one of the last contracts we offered, and for him to come in and do what he has done, he is bowling the hardest overs that spinners can bowl.”

ENGLAND kept South Africa wicketless through the first session of the third Test in Port Elizabeth last night on a pitch that indicated days of hard toil ahead for the bowlers.

England went to lunch on 0-61 and with its two openers relatively comfortable. Dom Sibley was 30 not out to follow his breakthrough maiden Test century in the series-trying win in the second Test.