Labuschagne success leads overseas T20 contingent

Marnus Labuschagne has combined a second straight half-century with three tidy overs to help Glamorgan record their first T20 Blast victory.

After starring with 93 not out in his English T20 debut last week, Labuschagne this time opted for the role as side-kick, scoring 59 as fellow Queenslander Nick Selman hit a 45-ball 65 to guide the home side to a seven-wicket victory in Cardiff.

“We’re very similar players in regard to we don’t hit over the top a great deal,” Selman (who holds a dual passport) told @GlamCricket after the match.  

“We ran hard, we hit the gaps and we built into it. It was great to bat with someone like him.”

Earlier, Labuschagne was thrown the ball in the 11^th over and immediately found success, dismissing Michael Pepper with his sixth delivery.

His performance was the major highlight on an otherwise lean day for Australians in the Vitality Blast.

Ben Dwarshuis opened the bowling for Worcestershire and took his second wicket of the competition before finishing with 1-27 in a victory over Lancashire.

In Leicester, WA teammates Cameron Bancroft and Josh Inglis were both dismissed for scores of seven as Bancroft’s Durham recorded a two-wicket victory on the road.

However, it was another Perth Scorcher who provided the biggest talking point on a day where six matches were completed throughout the country.

Opener Joe Clarke hit 11 sixes and six fours in an exhilarating 65-ball knock of 136.

The 25-year-old played just three matches for the Scorchers in BBL|10, as the competition’s finalists regularly opted for the more experienced international trio of Liam Livingstone, Jason Roy and Colin Munro.

In the UAE, a three-wicket haul from James Faulkner couldn’t prevent the Lahore Qalanders losing their first match since the Pakistan Super League restart.

Faulkner bowled 14 dot balls in an economical spell, and now has eight wickets to his name in just three matches with the Qalanders.

His teammates Ben Dunk (1 from 3) and Tim David (3 from 8) had rare failures with the bat, while Usman Khawaja couldn’t get off the mark for Islamabad United, dismissed for a third-ball duck.

Fawad Ahmed took 2-27 in the Islamabad victory.