Sehwag's golden duck

After a stuttering start, Hobart Hurricanes had recovered momentum courtesy Travis Birt and Jonathan Wells. Their partnership had moved to 52, and Hurricanes looked poised to post a 150-plus total, when Wells chopped Akshar Patel straight to backward point and set off for a single. There was no run in it, but Wells was halfway down the pitch by the time Birt sent him back. Karanveer Singh only had the simple task of throwing the ball to the keeper, and Wells was caught well short of his crease. In the 14 balls that remained after Wells' departure, Hurricanes only scored 14 runs.

Hobart Hurricanes had just lost Wells, but they still had a set Birt in the middle and two overs to come from seam bowlers without too much exposure to the big time. If they thought Anureet Singh would provide them the fodder to launch to a fairly big total, they were mistaken. Anureet bowled the first ball into the blockhole, angling it into the left-handed Birt, and all he could get was a leg-bye. The right-handed Evan Gulbis came on strike, but Anureet stayed around the wicket, and continued to attack the base of the stumps from that angle. Giving neither batsman any room to free their arms, Anureet conceded five singles from the last five balls, and Kings XI were keeping Hurricanes to a very manageable total.

It's Twenty20, of course, but Virender Sehwag is still likelier than any other batsman to chase an extremely wide ball when it's the first ball of the innings. Having thrown his bat at Doug Bollinger's first delivery, short and wide and potentially one that the umpire would have called a wide, he only got the toe-end of his bat to it, and third man took an easy catch. It was the 14th time Sehwag had been dismissed in the first over of a T20 innings, enabling him to join David Warner on top of that list.

Glenn Maxwell might be in the process of writing a new textbook for batsmen, but the virtues that allow him to do so are as old-fashioned as they come - a good eye and lightning-quick feet. On a difficult pitch for unorthodox strokes, he had already struck three fours and two sixes when Evan Gulbis began the 11th over. First ball, Maxwell charged out of his crease, making room to hit through the off side. Gulbis saw this and followed him, angling a shortish ball in towards his body. Far from being cramped for room, Maxwell found a way to adjust, skipping away from the ball in one quick step and freeing his arms to slap the ball over wide mid-off for four.