Wade crunches rapid ton to open Australia A tour in style

While one Australian left hander was filling his boots in Nottingham, another was doing similar in Northampton as Matthew Wade hammered 117 off 67 balls to guide Australia A to a convincing victory at the start of their tour.

His innings was the standout feature of a very efficient performance from a side that contains plenty of international experience. Wade, who was playing as a specialist batsman, still harbours hopes of resurrecting his international career despite being overlooked during a prolific home season, the form from which does not seem to have dissipated after a few months off.

"I was happy with it. I haven't played for a while so wasn't 100% sure how I would strike the ball after a late arrival but I struck it as clean as I have for a while," he said. "My mindset coming over here has been staying true to how I want to play, not letting things that may come in the future get into my head. I just want to come out and play the way I want to play and I know my game is good enough to succeed in any format or any competition I play in."

Elsewhere there was a neat innings from Peter Handscomb (64) who many feel should be part of the current World Cup squad, while the same sentiment applies to Josh Hazlewood who bagged 2 for 51 in his first competitive outing since being laid low by a back injury in early January.

Mitchell Marsh, who was on standby to replace Marcus Stoinis at the World Cup, and Ashton Agar combined to take five wickets as Northamptonshire were held to 262 for 9 then Marsh helped complete the chase with an unbeaten 40.

However, it was mostly about Wade as he flayed 18 fours and three sixes in a powerful display with the Northamptonshire attack powerless to stop him. He added a rapid opening stand of 58 with D'Arcy Short - his partner contributing just 7 - then put on 85 in 10 overs with captain Travis Head. When he fell in just the 21st over, Wade had scored 117 of the 170 runs leaving a simple task for the middle order to finish things off with 14 overs to spare.

"I was feeling good, my timing was there which is always key," Wade said. "I've trained a long time in the nets the way I want to play in games. I'm quite attacking at the moment, but the mindset isn't to swing at every ball. When I feel I'm just trying to get myself in for 20-30 runs it never really works out, I need to walk out and me positive in the mind, look to score and in England you get such value for shots."

In the field, Hazlewood only had to wait until his third over to strike when he trapped Richard Levi lbw, but the Northamptonshire top order put in a solid display. Rob Newton (53) and Josh Cobb (49) added 92 before Marsh and Agar started to make inroads.

Alex Wakely also struck a half-century but when he fell to Agar in the 43rd over the lower order couldn't lift the tempo although an unbroken final-wicket stand of 30 meant the home side batted out their overs.