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ScorecardRichard Pyrah continues his excellent form in the YB40•Getty Images

Rain brought a damp end to Thursday’s Yorkshire Bank 40 game between Yorkshire and Middlesex at Headingley, but the silver lining for the home side was that they pulled off their first win of the season against county opposition.After Middlesex had been restricted to 217 for 8 from their 40 overs in the Group C fixture, Yorkshire reached 54 without loss in 13 overs in reply before a 26-minute break for rain reduced their Duckworth-Lewis target to 197 off 35 overs.And when the rain returned, openers Andrew Gale and Adam Lyth had taken the score to 81 in 17.2 overs, Yorkshire winning by the comfortable margin of 17 runs under the D/L system.It was Yorkshire’s best start to an innings in the competition this season, skipper Gale ending unbeaten on 34 from 56 balls with two fours and Lyth 38 off 50 deliveries with three fours and a six. Before this game Yorkshire’s only success in seven outings had been against Unicorns, their six other matches all being lost.Middlesex’s modest total meant Gale and Lyth were under little pressure when they began the reply and their main concern in the increasing gloom was to make sure that they were always comfortably ahead of the required rate. Gale led the way for a while but Lyth moved ahead by hooking Toby Roland-Jones for four and cracking his next ball for a flat six over midwicket.After the first stoppage for rain, the batsmen had sufficient time to make it Yorkshire’s best opening stand of the season, overtaking the 61 by Gale and Phil Jaques against Leicestershire at Scarborough, Jaques not being selected because of an abdominal strain.Having been put in to bat, most of the action came inside the first nine overs of the Middlesex innings as Paul Stirling lashed a rapid 32 from 20 balls with five fours and a six and paceman Iain Wardlaw knocked over three of the first four batsmen to claim career-best figures of 3 for 39.Stirling set the tone by cover-driving Wardlaw’s first ball for four and he took seven off the over before tearing into 15-year-old Matt Fisher, striking him for three fours and a six in his initial over to score the visitors’ first 25 runs from a dozen deliveries. But Wardlaw replied with a perfect yorker to knock over Stirling’s stumps for 32 from 20 balls and end an opening partnership of 42 in five overs with Dawid Malan.Joe Denly then chopped Wardlaw into his stumps which meant that the seamer had bowled his last five victims in the competition and in the following over Sam Robson suffered a similar fate against Ryan Gibson, whose next two balls were leg-glanced and cover-driven for boundaries by new batsman, Adam Rossington.It became 65 for 4 as Malan cut loosely at Wardlaw and was caught behind by Andy Hodd, leaving the Middlesex middle order to rebuild the innings – a job chiefly done by Rossington (42) and Gareth Berg (43) before both became victims of Yorkshire’s leading YB40 League bowler Richard Pyrah, who ended up with figures of 3 for 33.

If not for some stern words from the leadership pair of Brendon McCullum and Kane Willamson during the final drinks break on Saturday, New Zealand might have found it hard to stop England from marching away with a massive lead. That was the moment Tim Southee pinpointed when asked to reveal exactly what had helped New Zealand bounce back late on the third evening of an exciting first Test.”The first half of the session we just ambled,” said Southee, who bagged three wickets in 17 deliveries to swell his match tally to six. “Brendon pulled the guys up during the drinks session and Kane gave us a few stern words. That did mean something because we were meandering along in the field.”Until that final hour of the day, England had imposed themselves completely. Their bowlers made amends for the errors of Friday, by bowling fuller lengths to earn a first-innings lead. And even when Alastair Cook and Nick Compton had departed in quick succession having made good starts, England recovered through the diligence of the impressive Joe Root and the rock solid Jonathan Trott, who was enjoying playing on one of his favourite grounds, where he has now eight successive 50-plus scores.Beset by the twin problem of having to keep wicket, after BJ Watling walked off with an injured knee, and losing his lone specialist spinner in Bruce Martin to a calf injury, McCullum threw the ball to Southee, who had gone wicketless in his first spell of the innings. Factors such as a slow pitch, warm sunshine, lack of swing and a pair of batsmen playing aggressively to build England’s lead made Southee’s task daunting.His fellow fast-bowling pair of Trent Boult and Neil Wagner had struggled with their lengths and he had seen the England bowlers Stuart Broad and Steve Finn falter the previous afternoon. Perhaps that might have helped him realised quickly that the key was to pitch on the right lengths. “A touch fuller,” he said. “There wasn’t a hell of a lot of swing there for us throughout the whole of today. We had to try something else before it started to do a little bit during the last session. It was a touch on the slower side but there are still ways to go about it and we had to adjust our lengths.”Southee’s patience paid off as he beat the defence of Root, who had shown remarkable composure until his fall. Then Southee earned the distinction of getting Matt Prior for a duck in successive innings of the same Test. “He had a great series in New Zealand,” Southee said. “He can take the game away with his destructive nature. He is a big wicket because of the way he can come out and play aggressively and score quickly.”Southee had returned to active cricket after recovering from a thumb injury during the home series against England earlier this year but six wickets at an average of 56 in three Tests – though he bowled better than that suggests – showed he was still regaining fluidity. He admitted that the presence of a strong unit of fast bowlers, including Boult, Wagner and Doug Bracewell, had helped bring out their competitive nature.Asked to predict which way the match was heading, Southee played it safe, saying that New Zealand could not afford to get too far ahead of themselves because the England tail was still capable of hurting them badly.

Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan, two of the three Rajasthan Royals players arrested on charges of alleged spot-fixing, have been granted bail by a trial court in Delhi on Monday. Seventeen others arrested in relation to the case were also given bail.The 19 accused will be released from Tihar Jail on Wednesday, but have been asked to surrender their passports.Ajit Chandila, the third Royals player under arrest, has not applied for bail yet.The judge said the Delhi Police had not produced enough evidence to charge the players under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), a special law passed by the Maharashtra state government to tackle organised crime syndicates and terrorism which contains far stricter provisions relating to bail and admissibility of confessions compared to the Indian Penal Code.Sreesanth, Chavan and Ajit Chandila were arrested on May 16, following which they were suspended by the BCCI pending an inquiry. They were charged under the Indian Penal Code sections 420 and 120B, which deal with fraud, cheating, and criminal conspiracy. Royals also suspended the contracts of all three players, who were allegedly promised money ranging from US$36,000 to 109,000 by bookies for under-performing.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will hold a meeting next week to decide whether it should make a request to the BCCI to release some of the under-performing Sri Lankan cricketers in the ongoing IPL so that they can partake in preparations for the Champions trophy. Nine of the ten Sri Lankan players playing in the IPL are part of Sri Lanka’s 15-member squad for the Champions trophy.”We have been discussing this issue recently but have not taken a firm decision,” Nishantha Ranatunga, the SLC secretary, said.Sri Lanka have arranged a limited-overs triangular tournament at Pallekele as preparation for the Champions trophy in England. The three teams in the preparatory tournament, Sri Lanka Rest (team selected for England), SLC Combined XI and Sri Lanka ‘A’, are due to play a total of seven fifty-over matches from May 12 to 20.”We know a lot of them are not faring well in the IPL, and we are worried about their form,” Ranatunga said. “We thought it would be better for these players to return home and play in the 50-over triangular rather than sit on the bench without playing a match in the IPL.”Former Sri Lanka captain and current captain of Delhi Daredevils Mahela Jayawardene is the only Sri Lanka player to have appeared in all the matches for his IPL team. The others have either been dropped from their respective sides due to poor form, to provide balance to the side, or simply were unable to play in Chennai due to political tensions. Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lanka captain, stepped down as the captain of Pune Warriors early this week.Ajantha Mendis is the only Sri Lankan player in the IPL who is not part of the Champions trophy squad.

Kumar Sangakkara, the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain, said that while the team would be affected by the absence of Shikhar Dhawan, his injury would offer a younger player a chance to perform. Dhawan fractured his finger while fielding in the third Test against Australia in March.”I think it is a huge loss,” Sangakkara said. “I watched him scoring that magnificent century for India against Australia in his debut Test. But, we have replacements who are probably good enough to do the job and we are excited to give that opportunity to a younger guy.”In the absence of Dhawan, Parthiv Patel, the former India wicketkeeper, is likely to shoulder the responsibility of opening the innings along with Sangakkara. “If you look at my career, I batted in almost every position. I am ready for any challenge,” Patel said.Sangakkara also said their first match against Pune Warriors would help the new team understand where it stands and use it as a reference point for further improvement.”We just want to keep things as simple as possible, play some good cricket, be very competitive in this tournament and then once we played the first match, then we will understand more, probably better, where we are at the moment and build from there again,” he said.Amit Mishra, the team’s legspinner, who struggled with his fitness during the last IPL, was also upbeat about the new season. “In the last edition I rushed into the IPL after an injury. I was not fully fit. This time I come into the IPL with decent performances in domestic cricket. Being one of the top five bowlers in the IPL gives me great pleasure.”

Nathan Lyon’s immediate future in the Test side remains unclear after the coach Mickey Arthur indicated he had been disappointed with Lyon’s season, not just his performance in the first Test. Lyon was dropped for the second Test in Hyderabad, and during the match Arthur said there were technical aspects of his game that Lyon needed to work on, as well as regaining confidence after collecting 4 for 244 in Chennai.However, among those wickets was a beautiful delivery that turned through the gate to bowl Sachin Tendulkar before MS Dhoni began his vicious assault. Lyon’s replacements, Xavier Doherty and Glenn Maxwell, failed to collect a wicket on the second day of the Test when Cheteshwar Pujara and M Vijay ran away with the game, although they fought back the following day to claim seven victims between them.Lyon had been Australia’s first-choice spinner since his Test debut in Sri Lanka in 2011 and he took only one Test longer than Shane Warne to reach 50 Test wickets. But since the start of the Australian summer Lyon has had less impact, and in seven Tests during that time, he has collected 23 victims at the inflated average of 45.08. His best figures in that period were 3 for 41 against South Africa at the WACA.”I think Nathan still has a massive future and he probably is up there as our best spinner at the moment, but you fluctuate in and out of form and he’s learning the game at international level, which is a really tough gig for him,” Arthur said. “He only played four first-class games before he played a Test match, he hasn’t played many after that and truth be told he hasn’t gone well this year.”We persisted with him because we put a lot of faith into Nathan but there came a point where we felt he needed to be taken out of the team and allowed to work on the things that we think he should be working on outside of competition games. We will re-assess where he is but he is doing everything right, he is not lacking in any preparation.”Asked if it would be possible for Lyon to do enough before the third Test in Mohali to earn a recall, Arthur said: “To answer that truthfully, I’m not sure. We will have to have a look and see where he is over the next couple of days. I’m not sure on that, time will tell I guess.”Arthur’s comments raise the possibility that Doherty might be retained for the Mohali Test, perhaps in partnership with Maxwell again or maybe as the sole spinner alongside a pace-heavy attack. Doherty turned a few balls past the bat on the second day as Pujara and Vijay put on their 370-run stand but few of his deliveries were seriously threatening until later in the innings and he finished with 3 for 131 from 46.1 overs.Maxwell was costly on the second day and although he eventually broke the Pujara-Vijay partnership, by then India were well and truly in control of the match. He ended up with 4 for 127 from 26 overs, at an economy rate of 4.88, and his lower-order batting was not a factor either, with scores of 13 and 8.”Doherty did what we know Doherty can do,” Arthur said. “He ran in, he went at under three an over and he caused problems when there was stuff for him to work with. That was exactly Xavier Doherty. Maxi was probably a little bit too loose. He’s taken four wickets, he’s created opportunities, but he’s gone at over four and a half an over.”You need the two of them bowling in a partnership, you need the two of us being able to stop the game with our spinners and we weren’t able to do that because Maxi leaked a little bit. There’s a massive amount of potential in Maxi though. Do we go back to three quicks again? I think conditions will determine that when we get to Mohali.”The Australians took part in a centre-wicket training session on the Test pitch in Hyderabad on Wednesday, on what was supposed to be the final day of the match. The spinners and the fast men who didn’t play in the Test, Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc, did plenty of bowling. The Mohali surface is expected to offer a bit more bounce for the fast bowlers.The squad will travel to Chandigarh on Thursday and will then have two days off to clear their heads away from cricket before resuming training on Sunday. The third Test starts on Thursday next week.

Times were when former New Zealand women’s cricket captain Maia Lewis had the cricket world at her feet.And then her knees gave out.An attacking player, who looked set to unite with the likes of Debbie Hockley and Emily Drumm to give New Zealand one of the great middle-order batting units of all time, she disappeared around the time of her injuries and, understandably, lost motivation.But all has not been lost.Lewis is back in Wellington and working as a cricket co-ordinator for Cricket Wellington and looking to revive her cricket career at the age of 32.”I’m feeling really good. My injuries are over and I’m fitter than I’ve been for a long time,” she said.Lewis has had an ACL reconstruction and during the dark days with her injuries she had arthroscopies on both knees.”I realised around that time that cricket was not the be-all and end-all in life and it was nice to have a couple of normal Christmases for a change,” she said.However, the competitive streak began to surface again, initially on the indoor cricket scene.”I had a couple of good indoor cricket seasons. I played in the New Zealand team last year in a series against Australia and was in the New Zealand team at the recent World Cup.”Lewis started last season living in Whangarei, playing her club cricket in Auckland but playing for Wellington in the State League.In eight innings, with two not outs, she totalled 130 runs at 21.66, a low return by her own standards, but the threat is that if she regains some of her former touches she will further extend her career average of 33.65.Of all the current players who have played 10 or more matches in the State League competition, only Drumm (47.78), Paula Flannery (34.20), Nicola Payne (37.43) and Megan Tyler (36.94) have better averages.For the moment, however, Lewis is looking no further ahead than working and performing with the State Wellington Blaze.Wellington are blooding quite a few new players and Lewis’ experience will be vital in building the side.She does so with her only regret from her earlier cricket career being a feeling that he has never achieved her full potential.”I feel I am batting a bit better now. I’m more mature and playing more of my natural game. When I was playing before I was a bit robotic and I lost a lot of my natural game and I have regrets that I didn’t achieve what I might have done,” she said.So far this season she has had one match for her Naenae club against Eastern Suburbs in Wellington in which she made 50 not out while in the Central Districts competition, she has been captaining the young Wairarapa side and last weekend had scores of 47 and 78 for them.The Wellington scene is much healthier with a good core of players having to fight over places in the representative side. The side will still be a young one with most of the players between 17-23 years, with eight of the squad also in the Under-21 squad. But players were getting opportunities a little earlier than had previously been the case.They were getting exposed to tougher cricket earlier, and while college cricket numbers have diminished, there are more school players in the senior competition. Seven teams are competing in the women’s senior competition this summer.Wellington are also running a Super 8 competition in which 11 teams are entered. In a bid to attract more people to the game, who haven’t the time to make a greater time commitment there will be a twilight competition played in mid-week of 16 overs-a-side to start on January 12.

North Zone

Punjab were able to defend 168 against Jammu & Kashmir in a 23-over reduced contest, winning by 48 runs. The Punjab openers compiled a 102-run stand after being put in to bat. Ravi Inder Singh top-scored with an aggressive 60 off 41 balls as Punjab ended up scoring 168 for eight in their 23 overs.J&K were unable to string together useful partnerships as they lost wickets at regular intervals. Parvez Rasool scored 33, with the next highest being opener Shubham Khajuria’s 25, as J&K batsmen were dismissed for 120. Yuvraj Singh was the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 19.The match between Haryana and Services was abandoned without a ball bowled, due to rain. Haryana are currently languishing near the bottom of the table as they lost their only full game, while suffering two no-results because of inclement weather. Services have also been hit with two no-results but are second in the table, tied on points with Delhi.Delhi and Himachal Pradesh’s match was abandoned due to rain. Rainy weather has already caused a number of no-results early in this Vijay Hazare Trophy for North Zone. Delhi are on top of the table, ahead of Services on net run-rate. Himachal have yet to win a game in the competition.

Central Zone

Rajasthan completed a convincing, 78-run victory over Vidarbha. Vidarbha’s decision to field first almost paid dividends as Rajasthan collapsed to 61 for 6. Fast bowler Shrikant Wagh took his maiden five-wicket haul, claiming five of the first six wickets to finish with figures of 6 for 42. However, Raman Chahar, who top-scored with 43, Madhur Khatri and Gajendra Singh then added some crucial runs before Rajasthan were all out for 208 in 46 overs.Vidarbha’s innings started solidly, with Fazal and Akshay Kolhar putting on 62 for the first wicket. However once Fazal was bowled by Khatri Vidarbha lost nine wickets for 68 runs as they folded for 130. Spinners Khatri and Gajendra played a decisive role once again, as they claimed career-best figures of 4 for 25 and 4 for 28 respectively.A run out off the last ball gave Uttar Pradesh a thrilling two-run win over Railways. UP’s innings started abjectly as they were 9 for 2. Suresh Raina and Mohammad Kaif put together a 104-run stand to lend stability to the innings. However UP lost a few more wickets to leave them at a compromising 142 for 6 in 35.1 overs. Askhdeep Nath and Eklavya Dwivedi helped UP recover with an 85-run stand as they finished 272 for 9.Towards the end Railways were staring at defeat, as they lost two wickets in the 49th over, followed by a wicket off the first ball in the final over. Karan Sharma scored 17 runs off the next four balls to push Railways to the brink of victory, before Shailender Gehlot was run out by Suresh Raina with the score at 270. The win takes Uttar Pradesh to the top of the Central Zone table.

West Zone

An unbeaten career-best 88 from Smit Patel guided Gujarat to a six-wicket win over Baroda. Having chosen to bowl first, the Gujarat bowlers kept Baroda in check by picking up regular wickets, with Rush Kalaria picking up 3 for 42.Baroda’s batsmen, including Ambati Rayadu and Yusuf Pathan, failed to capitalise. The only resistance came from Aditya Waghmode who scored a career-best 66. Chasing 224 for victory, Gujarat had an early stutter, but the middle order, led by Patel and Manprit Juneja (58), ensured a comfortable win for the side. The win takes Gujarat to the top of the West Zone table with nine points.Mumbai‘s pace trio of Kshemal Waingankar, Ajit Agarkar and Aavishkar Salvi set up a 126-run win over Saurashtra. Mumbai scored a daunting 283, helped by an unbeaten debut century from Siddhesh Lad and a half-century from Shoaib Shaikh. Lad’s 91-ball innings included seven fours and six sixes.Set a target of 284 to win, Saurashtra struggled from the start, at one point being 5 for 61. Agarkar bowled a miserly 4 for 19 in 9 overs, backed by a maiden five-wicket haul from Waingankar. Chirag Jani’s 61 was the only form of resistance as Saurashtra folded for 157 all out inside of 42 overs.

South Zone

Andhra failed to defend their total of 256 as Kerala won by six wickets. Unbeaten half-centuries from middle-order batsmen Robert Fernandez and Raiphi Gomez helped Kerala achieve the target with more than three overs to spare.Kerala put Andhra in to bat and their openers responded with a 103-run stand, before S Sreesanth and Rohan Prem struck for Kerala. Wicket-keeper Srikar Bharat top-scored with 74 and was ably supported by Jyothi Sai Krishna (61) as Andhra finished at 256 for 6.Kerala’s chase was shaky before the middle order steadied the innings. Fernandez anchored the innings with an unbeaten 85, with vital contributions from Sachin Baby and Gomez, who scored 68 off 47 balls.Karnataka continued their unbeaten streak in this competition, comfortably chasing down Tamil Nadu’s 250-run target with seven wickets in hand and more than four overs to spare.Tamil Nadu’s decision to bat first almost came undone as they were 4 for 85 halfway through their innings. A 142-run stand for the sixth wicket between Dinesh Karthik and Vijay Shankar lent some respectability to the score, as Tamil Nadu reached 250. Manish Pandey’s unbeaten 81, along with KK Nair’s 64 not out, helped guide Karnataka to 252 for three in reply to Tamil Nadu’s 250 for 8.Hyderabad sauntered home with an eight-wicket win over Goa in a match that was reduced to 25 overs.Goa had an explosive start with rapid fifties from top order batsmen Swapnil Asnodkar (70 off 50 balls), Sagun Kamat (63 off 39) and Manvinder Bisla (40 off 26), as they raced to 225 for seven at a run-rate of 9.00.Hyderabad kept their cool and were guided by Dwaraka Ravi Teja’s imperious 111 off 67 balls. Akash Bhandari, who picked up 2 for 36 earlier, scored 78 off 42 balls as Hyderabad reached their target by the end of the 23rd over.

New Zealand Cricket will be a beneficiary of the ICC’s Targeted Assistance and Performance Programme (TAPP), and will receive US$1.8 million over a period of three years. The programme is geared towards developing more competitive teams among the ICC’s Full and Associate/Affiliate Members. New Zealand are currently No.8 in both the Test and ODI rankings. The decision was made at the meeting of the ICC board in Dubai. The first Full members to receive ICC funding as part of the TAPP were West Indies and Zimbabwe last year.”The New Zealand Cricket initiative will focus on a programme of ‘A’ Team cricket and the development of coaching and sports science expertise,” an ICC release stated.The TAPP programme, which formed part of the ICC’s strategic plan for 2011-2015, began at the start of last year, with a $12m fund aimed at giving teams at all levels a chance to generate funding support from the ICC in order to improve team performance.Ireland and Scotland were the first to receive TAPP assistance in June last year, at the end of the ICC’s annual conference in Kuala Lumpur, with an award of $500,000 per annum for three years.Countries that would like to receive funding are asked to go through a bidding process starting with a formal application that could lead up to a possible presentation, before the award is recommended by the ICC’s finance and commercial affairs committee to the board. The ICC then works with the board to develop a three-year MOU to detail the specific activities to be supported by the funding.The increasing number of domestic T20 leagues was also discussed at the meeting and the board agreed that further deliberations must be aimed at “attaining co-existence between domestic T20 leagues and the international game”. “Domestic Twenty20 leagues have provided so many opportunities for players and officials alike as well as entertaining large domestic crowds,” the release quoted the ICC chief executive David Richardson as saying. “A workable and balanced international playing calendar is key to the sustainability of the game.”In an interview with ESPNcricinfo in October last year, Richardson said, “there has to be a way to make sure that they [domestic T20 leagues] can exist and complement international cricket rather than destroy or cannibalise it.”The next ICC Annual Conference will be held in London in June this year.The ICC Board consists of the president or chairman from each of the 10 Full members plus three Associate member representatives. Also present at ICC Board meetings is the ICC President, who chairs proceedings, the ICC Vice-President and the ICC Chief Executive.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Joe Burns made an important 43 for the Heat•Getty Images

Kemar Roach, the Brisbane Heat’s big-name international signing, entered the BBL final having taken only two wickets in his seven games, but he stepped up when it mattered most to help deliver the title against the Perth Scorchers. Roach collected 3 for 18 from his four overs and together with Man-of-the-Match Nathan Hauritz, who bowled tightly and took three terrific outfield catches, ensured the Heat would defend their 5 for 167 with relative ease.In the end the Heat won by 34 runs as the Scorchers’ chase petered out and they finished their 20 overs at 9 for 133, too much work having been left for the lower order. For the second consecutive year, the Scorchers suffered the disappointment of hosting the final, entering it as favourites, and emerging without the trophy, but by reaching this stage they at least qualified to take part in a second consecutive Champions League later in the year.Still, they would have felt at the halfway point of this game that they were in with a strong chance. On a good batting pitch, 168 was the kind of chase that would require a very solid batting performance, and was certainly gettable. But the absence from their top order of Herschelle Gibbs, who injured his hamstring in the semi-final against the Melbourne Stars, hurt the Scorchers more than the loss of captain James Hopes (hamstring) did the Heat.Marcus Stoinis, in his third match of the tournament, was asked to replace Gibbs at the top of the order and was undone by Roach’s pace and bounce, when his top edge was brilliantly caught at third man by Hauritz. An even better outfield take from Hauritz got rid of Shaun Marsh, who on 16 pulled Ben Cutting and was caught when Hauritz leapt and snared the ball above his head at deep backward square leg.The runs just weren’t flowing for the Scorchers, who had started slowly against the offspin of Hauritz, who bowled the first over of the innings. At precisely the halfway point of the chase, Marcus North top-edged a pull off Daniel Christian and was caught for 24 off 23 balls and the Scorchers still needed a further 102 runs from their final 10 overs, which despite a fighting innings from Adam Voges, proved out of reach.Nathan Coulter-Nile, sent up the order as a pinch-hitter, holed out on 16 to the part-time spin of Chris Lynn and provided Hauritz with a third catch, and batting at No.6 Michael Hussey couldn’t conjure the magic required and was caught at long-off for 10. The Scorchers’ remaining hopes ended when Roach picked up Simon Katich for a duck and Voges for 49 in the 18th over, both caught in the deep by Chris Sabburg.As it turned out, the Heat had accumulated more than enough runs after choosing to bat. They had Joe Burns and Christian to thank for that, after the openers Luke Pomersbach and Peter Forrest made a steady but far from spectacular start. Jason Behrendorff got rid of both openers, Forrest for 17 off 16 balls and Pomersbach for 37 from 38, although Brad Hogg’s tight spin-bowling had been a major factor in building the pressure that brought the wickets at the other end.But Burns managed to lift the tempo and his innings of 43 from 27 balls was all the more frustrating for the Scorchers because he could have been out from the next delivery after Pomersbach fell. Burns pulled Behrendorff and the ball seemed destined to find Marsh at deep square leg, but the sun appeared to distract Marsh and he was unable even to get a hand on the ball, which then bounced away for four.Burns eventually skied a catch to long-on from the bowling of Michael Beer but Christian was able to keep the boundaries flowing until he was bowled by Coulter-Nile in the second-last over for 37 from 21 balls. The Heat had picked up 48 runs in their final five overs, the kind of finish the Scorchers required later in the match. But unlike the Heat, they ran out of batting firepower.