Starc and Smith steer NSW to another big win

New South Wales 9 for 266 (Smith 72) beat South Australia 110 (Starc 4-27) by 156 runs
Scorecard

Much had been made of New South Wales fielding a team of 11 internationals against a South Australia side with two, but this contest effectively came down to one duel and one ball. Mitchell Starc, the world's most feared limited-overs bowler, versus Travis Head, the precocious South Australia captain and an international batsman of the future.

On Monday, Head's 202 had rushed the Redbacks to a chase of 351 to beat Western Australia, about the same time as Starc's left-arm rockets were razing the Cricket Australia XI. This time around SA were chasing only 266 after an energetic stint in the field that gleaned three Blues run-outs and left plenty of furrowed brows under the NSW awning at North Sydney Oval.

Seeking to take up where he left off against the Warriors, Head opened the batting and boldly took Starc's first over. In response, Starc followed a first-up wide with an away swinging yorker that flicked the outside of Head's off stump - a left-hander's version of the ball that confounded Brendon McCullum in the World Cup final. SA never really recovered from that moment, as the stronger NSW combination rumbled to victory.

Starc was aided in his quest for wickets by uniformly strong bowling displays from the rest of the Blues' attack. Gurinder Sandhu struck his typically awkward length, Steve O'Keefe landed the ball on a sixpence and pinned Sam Raphael in front of the stumps, while Sean Abbott accounted for the potentially dangerous Tom Cooper. Nathan Lyon got numerous balls to spin and jump on a pitch that was slow, tacky and intermittently untrustworthy.

The Redbacks had fancied their chances of reeling in the Blues after taking regular wickets throughout the morning and thereby frustrating the home captain Steven Smith's efforts to build partnerships. Raphael, Zampa and Head were all quicksilver in the field, causing indecision in the Blues' running between the wickets while also holding several challenging catches.

Most striking of these was Zampa's one-handed plucking of a mistimed Smith flick at midwicket, both feet well off the ground to reach it. Equally memorable was Raphael's dive to stop a forcing shot from Smith, swiftly followed by a recovery to throw down the stumps from side on and leave Peter Nevill stranded.

Much of the credit for restricting the Blues had to go to the SA spin pair of Zampa and Tom Andrews, who bowled with notable control and subtle changes of pace to upset the rhythm of the batsmen. Moises Henriques had threatened to take the innings into more free-flowing territory in making 35 at near enough to a run a ball, but Andrews tempted him into a skied drive down the ground that was well held by Cooper a matter of centimetres inside the boundary rope.

The fielding performance was further vindication of SA's heavy pre-season fitness program under the guidance of the former Adelaide and Gold Coast AFL fitness trainer Stephen Schwerdt, but as Head was to discover, all the training in the world is insufficient to prepare for a swinging Starc yorker when a batsman is still getting his bearings. On that ball swung the match.