Labuschagne dominates in English T20 debut

Marnus Labuschagne has belted a career-best T20 score to finish unbeaten on 93, but his efforts could not steer his Glamorgan side to victory in the UK's T20 Blast competition.

Labuschagne smashed 10 fours and two sixes in his enterprising 56-ball knock, but Glamorgan fell four runs short against Gloucestershire overnight.

His efforts came on the same night it was confirmed David Warner and Marcus Stoinis have withdrawn from the inaugural season of the Hundred in the UK, forgoing contracts worth A$182,000 and A$147,000 respectively.

Chasing 180, Labuschagne arrived at 1-31 in the fourth over and steered his first ball to the vacant third-man boundary.

After a 58-run partnership with Chris Cooke, Glamorgan suffered a horror batting collapse, with three players falling for non-consecutive first-ball ducks.

Labuschagne's trademark energy between the wickets saw him farm the strike as he added 24 runs in two overs while four wickets fell at the other end.

With only the No.11 batter for company, Labuschagne took his team from 9-144 to within sight of an unlikely win.

Glamorgan needed 19 from the final over but Labuschagne could only manage two boundaries and a six as the team fell four runs short.

"I'm still thinking about where I could have found those extra five runs and taken the game on a little bit more," Labuschagne told BBC Sport Wales.

"I'm evaluating that so I know when I'm in that situation again I can get us over the line.

"Pleasing to get some runs but disappointing not to get us over the line.

"I never doubted I could get a fifty in T20 cricket but for me it's about winning games with Glamorgan, Australia or Queensland.

"Early on my strokes weren't too different (to longer formats) but through the middle of the innings it looks a lot different in terms of targeting the right areas, it's a new and exciting challenge."

Labuschagne had earlier claimed a wicket with his leg-spin, and took a fine running catch on the boundary in a player-of-the-match performance.

The Queenslander's efforts on his T20 Blast debut are a timely reminder to Australia's selectors of his three-format potential, after he was left out of the forthcoming white-ball tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh for logistical reasons.

While Labuschagne remained in the UK, fellow Aussies Dan Christian and Ben McDermott this week flew back from their T20 Blast stints with Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, respectively, after being among the six new faces added to the preliminary Australian squad for that tour.

"With Covid, the amount of quarantine that is needed for me to play in those games is almost 38 days," Labuschagne told The Times this week.

"Any time you can't go to play for Australia is a very disappointing time, but the silver lining is that I get to play most of the T20 comp here and almost double the amount of T20s I have played in my career. I've played 16 before and I will play 14 here.

"I would love to be playing in the World Cup in a few months. I don't know if it is a realistic goal from the selectors, but it is a realistic goal from my perspective."

The withdrawal of Warner and Stoinis from the Hundred follows reports they are among seven Australians considering withdrawing from the West Indies and Bangladesh tours as Australia looks to manage the 'bubble fatigue' of key players ahead of the T20 World Cup and Ashes this summer.

Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Adam Zampa, Aaron Finch, Chris Lynn, D'Arcy Short and Nathan Coulter-Nile are the remaining Australians contracted for the Hundred.

Short, a member of Australia's enlarged white-ball squad, travelled to the UK last week and is playing with Hampshire in the T20 Blast, suggesting he is unlikely to make the final cut for the Australia squad.

In other Australian performances in T20 Blast matches, Chris Green hit 19 from 15 balls and took 1-25 on his Middlesex debut in a high-scoring defeat to Surrey.

And Perth Scorchers star Josh Inglis hit 34 from 19 balls opening the batting for Leicestershire as they fell short against Lancashire at Old Trafford where New Zeland breakout star Finn Allen carried his bat for 73 from 51 balls.

Elsewhere, Hobart Hurricanes stars Tim David and James Faulkner have continued to light up the Pakistan Super League as the Lahore Qalandars won for a second straight match in the resumed leagued.

David wowed with a 36-ball 64 that featured five sixes and three fours in Lahore's 10-run win over Peshawar Zalmi, while Faulkner was again in the wickets with the new ball, taking 2-23 to go with the 22 runs he scored in seven balls.

Faulkner had taken 3-32 the previous day as Lahore beat Islamabad United, where Usman Khawaja made his PSL debut with 18 runs.

Qantas Tour of the West Indies 2021

Australia squad: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Wes Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Dan Christian, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Tanveer Sangha, D'Arcy Short, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa (squad to be trimmed before departure)

West Indies T20 squad: Kieron Pollard (c), Nicholas Pooran (vc), Fabian Allen, Dwayne Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell, Fidel Edwards, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Evin Lewis, Obed McCoy, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Kevin Sinclair, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh Jr

First T20: July 9, Daren Sammy Stadium, St Lucia, 7.30pm (July 10, 9.30am AEST)

Second T20: July 10, Daren Sammy Stadium, St Lucia, 7.30pm (July 11 9.30am AEST)

Third T20: July 12, Daren Sammy Stadium, St Lucia, 7.30pm (July 13, 9.30am AEST)

Fourth T20: July 14, Daren Sammy Stadium, St Lucia, 7.30pm (July 15, 9.30am AEST)

Fifth T20: July 16, Daren Sammy Stadium, St Lucia, 7.30pm (July 17, 9.30am AEST)

First ODI: July 20, Kensington Oval, Barbados, 2.30pm D/N (July 21, 4.30am AEST)

Second ODI: July 22, Kensington Oval, Barbados, 2.30pm D/N (July 23, 4.30am AEST)

Third ODI: July 24, Kensington Oval, Barbados, 2.30pm D/N (July 25, 4.30am AEST)

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