Green outshines Ashes rival Brook in IPL duel

Cam Green has won the Indian Premier League showdown between Australia and England’s young guns in Hyderabad.

Green cracked an unbeaten 64 off 40 balls with six fours and two sixes as Mumbai Indians made 5-192.

Harry Brook, who hit a maiden IPL century in his previous outing, looked in similar form as he opened with two sumptuous fours, but he was then surprised by a slower ball bouncer from Jason Behrendorff and dismissed for a seven-ball nine.

With Behrendorff (2-37 off four) adding the wicket of Rahul Tripathi, Sunrisers Hyderabad were reduced to 2-25 in the fourth over. They never recovered and were bowled out off the penultimate ball for 178, 15 runs adrift.

The final wicket was taken by Arjuna Tendulkar, son of the legendary Sachin, his first wicket in the IPL.

The IPL is a huge event in its own right, but 60 days out from the first Test at Edgbaston every Anglo-Australian encounter is seen through an Ashes lens.

Green’s ability to cope with the stresses of being the most expensive Australian in the IPL, having been signed for $3.15m, augurs well for the pressure he will be under in England.

The 23-year-old West Australian, who won a clutch of post-match awards, said: “The first couple of games were a learning curve for me and the team but we’ve now won three in a row.”

Of his key role bowling at the death he added: “It is a work in progress but you get better the more you get exposed to it.”

Rohit Sharma focused his compliments on Green’s batting. “I like his approach. He is not playing the bowler he is playing the ball,” said the Indians skipper.

Green began slowly, assessing the pace of the pitch, then accelerated. He had good support from Ishan Kishan (38) and Tilak Varma (37).

In a late cameo Tim David made 16 off 11 balls before being run out of the last delivery.

After Behrendorff’s early inroads Sunrisers rebuilt through Maynak Agarwal and skipper Aiden Markham (22), but the latter fell to Green’s fourth ball as the all-rounder took a role with the ball, finishing with 1-29 off four overs.

Indians ultimately fielded a quartet of Australians with Green, Behrendorff and David joined by Riley Meredith, who was introduced as an ‘impact substitute’.

He had an impact too, dismissing Agarwal (48 off 41) and Marco Jansen (13 off six) as he took 2-33 in his four overs.

They were two of a quartet of fine catches taken on the long on boundary by David, which included Heinrich Klassen, who had threatened to transform the match with 36 off 16. David added a run-out to complete a fielding five-for.

Meredith had been omitted from the initial XI despite Jofra Archer being unavailable for the fourth successive match. The quick’s continued absence is a concern for England as the problem is his troublesome right elbow.

Archer has twice had surgery on the elbow joint spending much of the last two years either injured or recuperating. England’s medical team have been working closely with their Mumbai counterparts and it is understood Archer is working towards returning against Punjab Kings on April 22 or Gujarat Titans three days later.

Archer’s setback has dented confidence that he will be play a major role in the Ashes with his county, Sussex, indicating he is unlikely to play first-class cricket for them before the series starts.

That would leave Archer going into the Ashes with just a series of four-over T20 spells behind him, that would seem inadequate preparation for five-day Tests.

– with PA