Stanlake, Khawaja knock over Tigers in Marsh Cup win

Billy Stanlake marked his first game for Queensland in nearly a full year with a fearsome bouncer barrage, before skipper Usman Khawaja continued his hot Hobart form in a four-wicket win to begin their Marsh One-Day Cup season on Monday.

Tasmania were blown away by Stanlake in a fiery opening burst as their top four batters, including Test captain Tim Paine, all departed to short balls from the towering speedster, who earned player-of-the-match honours for his 10-over haul of 4-24 at Blundstone Arena.

Khawaja, fresh off lifting his side to a thrilling final-day win in last week's Sheffield Shield game, scored his second match-winning hand in three days with a composed 93 from 106 balls.

His departure to lively paceman Nathan Ellis (3-39 from his 10 overs) in a collapse of 3-34 gave Tasmania a late sniff, but the ever-reliable Jimmy Peirson (16no) and No.8 Mark Steketee (5no) got the visitors home with 14 balls to spare.

Jordan Silk had picked up where he left off with KFC BBL champions Sydney Sixers, playing a lone hand with the bat to get Tasmania up to a competitive 237 after they had slumped to 7-143.

But only he and Ellis provided any sustained resistance to the Bulls, who are aiming to go one better in the Marsh Cup having been beaten in last season's 50-over final by Western Australia.

The form of Stanlake will be particularly encouraging given he will be available for the remainder of the domestic season having missed out on an Indian Premier League deal and was also overlooked for Australia's T20 tour of New Zealand.

Tasmania were sent in when fill-in skipper Paine, playing in his first one-dayer for his native state in over three years, lost the toss but nonetheless got off to flying start, hitting Steketee's first ball of the game for four through the off-side.

Paine shared in a brisk 55-run opening stand with the in-form Caleb Jewell (36 off 27), who scored his maiden first-class century against Queensland last week, before the left-hander became the first in a procession of Tasmanian wickets to Stanlake short balls.

Jewell, Jake Doran, Mac Wright and then Paine all got in awkward positions to the right-armer and offered simple catches.

When Marnus Labuschagne pulled off a diving direct-hit run out to remove Tom Andrews, the game looked set for an early finish.

It took some crafty batting from Silk, who was particularly effective hitting the Queensland pacemen through the off-side, and handy lower-order contributions from Jackson Bird (27 off 25) and Ellis (21 off 41) to ensure the Tigers reached a competitive total.

Left-armer Matthew Kuhnemann took 3-47 as he continues to take the lead spin bowling role for Queensland with Mitchell Swepson out with a neck injury, while quick Xavier Bartlett (2-35 off 8.5) was the other multiple wicket taker.

Khawaja, who hit two one-day centuries and averaged nearly 80 in last season’s Marsh Cup, continued his good touch in the maroon though his fellow batters failed to push on with promising starts.

Opening partner Sam Heazlett (27), Marnus Labuschagne (18) and Matthew Renshaw (16) were all caught on the boundary trying to up the run-rate.

Labuschagne got off the mark with a crisp on-drive off Bird but was the victim of a fleet-footed grab from Sam Rainbird at fine-leg.

Joe Burns (36 off 59), batting at No.5, then helped put on 87 for the fourth wicket with Khawaja to all but get Queensland home.