Josh Philippe makes his mark ahead of West Indies T20I series
Australia's top-order batters have all made some runs across the two intra-squad matches
ESPNcricinfo staff
08-Jul-2021
Josh Philippe top scored on Wednesday (file photo) • AFP
Australia II 166 for 2 (Philippe 67, Henriques 51) beat Australia I 165 for 6 (Wade 52, Starc 3-30) by eight wickets
Josh Philippe cut loose in Australia's second intra-squad warm-up match in St Lucia while Matthew Wade and Moises Henriques also hit rapid half-centuries.
As with the first match on Monday, Australia's 20-player squad was split into two sides of 10 with a batter from each able to go in twice. However, unlike the previous outing this one was played as a proper T20 ahead of the opening game against West Indies on Friday.
In an indication of a potential opening pair for that game, Wade swapped sides to go in alongside captain Aaron Finch. He dominated an opening stand of 65 in less than seven overs before a mix-up had Finch run out.
Wade went on to make 52 off 34 balls before falling to Ashton Agar and was the player allotted a second innings but was stumped for a duck against Adam Zampa.
The chase for the Australia II side was powered by Philippe who made his international debut earlier this year in New Zealand after two outstanding BBL campaigns.
In that series he was at No. 3 before opening in the final match but indicated after this outing that he was expecting a role lower down the order against West Indies.
Here surged along to 67 off 43 in an innings that included nine fours and a six before Henriques, who had been part of the side against India last year before being named in the Test squad for the postponed South Africa tour, guided the chase home with 51 off 35 balls alongside Ben McDermott.
Mitchell Marsh - who made 31 off 21 balls for Australia I to follow a half-century two days ago - batted at No. 3 in both warm-up matches which could indicate his starting position while Henriques will be in the frame for the middle order in the absence of Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis.
Mitchell Starc was the most successful bowler of the evening with 3 for 30 from his four overs which included removing Marsh and Ashton Turner with consecutive deliveries. Zampa sent down his four overs for 25.
The first two T20Is of the series will be played back to back on Friday and Saturday with all five games taking place in St Lucia where a small number of fully vaccinated spectators will be allowed to attend.