Clarke returns as friendly practice matches begin

Australia skipper Michael Clarke made a successful return from injury in Brisbane today, but the news was not as good for Bangladesh which failed to topple a Cricket Australia XI.

Clarke, who is in a race against time to return from hamstring surgery to head up Australia’s ICC Cricket World Cup campaign, scored 34 runs off 36 balls in the warm-up match at Allan Border Field while also bowling two overs and taking a great grab in slips.

Batting first, Bangladesh was in trouble early after losing star Shakib Al Hasan, who was caught by Clarke in slips.

It fell to 5-57 before a partnership between Mohammad Mahmudullah and Sabbir Rahman helped them post a decent total of 193.

The CA XI chased the total with eight overs in hand for the loss of six wickets.

The leg-spin of Rahman ended Clarke’s innings, while Al-Amin Hossain, Mahmudullah and Soumya Sarkar also picked up wickets.

In Sydney, Scotland was in action in a practice match against St George DCC.

Fielding a team without captain Preston Mommsen and led by vice-captain Kyle Coetzer, Scotland won the toss and opted to bowl, with St George scoring 9-189 off its 50 overs.

Scotland’s batsmen had a good hit-out in reply. After losing Coetzer for 23, Calum Macleod took control scoring an unbeaten 129 to lead Scotland to an eight-wicket victory.

Macleod reached his century with 12 fours and five sixes, well supported by Freddie Coleman who finished unbeaten on 39.

Meanwhile in Napier, United Arab Emirates notched a six-wicket win over Central Districts after successfully chasing 250 and in New Zealand yesterday, Zimbabwe was in action against Northern Districts in Gisborne, posting an eight-wicket win.

Batting first, Gisborne scored 6-266, with the wickets shared between the Zimbabwe bowlers. Tinashe Panyangara was particularly economical with his four overs taking 1-14.

Zimbabwe reached the total off 40.4 overs thanks to the batting efforts of Brendan Taylor (87* off 72), Sikandar Butt (63 off 64), Chamu Chibhabha (62 off 70) and Hamilton Masakadza (41* off 41).