Adelaide Strikers 169 for 6 (Wolvaardt, Mandhana 41, Mack 41, King 3-29) beat Perth Scorchers 139 (Halliday 47, Schutt 3-19) by 30 runs

With two games left, Scorchers remain in fifth spot with eight points and they trail fourth-placed Hobart Hurricanes by a sizeable run rate difference.

Strikers, champions of the past two tournaments, climbed from bottom of the ladder to seventh – they have six points but just one match remaining.

Strikers were sent into bat openers Mandhana and Mack made an instant impact, taking 40 from the initial four overs. They reached 81 in the 10th over when Mandhana was caught at mid-off from the bowling of Sophie Devine, ending a knock featuring five fours and a six.

Just eight balls later, Mack advanced down the pitch but was beaten by a perfectly flighted delivery from legspinner Alana King and was stumped.

Wolvaardt soon took centre stage with her rapid-fire innings featuring three fours and three sixes – two from consecutive balls from Chloe Ainsworth.

The South African was caught on the cover boundary with three balls remaining and King finished with another stumping on the last ball, giving her figures of 3 for 29.

Scorchers’ run chase began terribly with Maddy Darke bowled by Schutt second ball. And in the third over, Schutt struck with consecutive deliveries, dismissing Dayalan Hemalatha and bowling Amy Edgar for a golden duck with a top-shelf inswinger, to boast figures of 3 for 6.

Schutt was denied a hat-trick by Scorchers stalwart Beth Mooney, who fell in the next over for 6 as the Scorchers crashed to 17 for 4 from 3.3 overs. Skipper Devine and new signing Brooke Halliday rallied but the task was beyond them.

But right now, Carey is arguably Australia’s most relaxed man. He enters the Test series against India as their most in-form player and looms as a potential match-winner with bat and gloves, even with Inglis in the squad for his batting.

Carey, 33, is entering his fourth home summer as a Test player and says he has never felt fresher. No player in the Australian team had a longer layoff without cricket over the winter.

The benefits are showing. He posted ODI scores of 74 and 77 not out first up in England on his return to the side in September. He has blasted 90, 111, and 123 not out in the first two Shield matches and 44 and 42 as captain in a low-scoring win in the third. He rounded off his preparation with 75 off 63 in his last One-Day Cup game for South Australia.

The time away gave him space to tinker with his batting. He credits his form, in part, to feeling fresh. But also to a small tweak in his set-up that he made without any input from anyone else.

“When you play and play and play, you don’t really get a chance to work on too many things,” Carey told reporters on Monday ahead of the first Test in Perth. “Not having games coming up for a while, I’ve just mucked around a little bit with my hands and found something that felt good and sort of ran with that.

“It’s only slight, but at the moment, it feels like I’m in a good position and reacting pretty well to the ball. But I think just a bit of time off and a bit of exploring gives you those opportunities.”

The slight change? Simply picking his bat up a little higher in his stance. Carey had noticed in his set-up that his hands and bat were a little low, with the toe of the blade below horizontal and pointing to gully upon the bowler’s release.

It was causing him to feel rushed at times on top of affecting his bat path, and his form had diminished over a period of 14 months between his only Test century in December 2022 and his 98 not out in Christchurch. During that period he averaged just 23.76 across 17 Tests, and lost his ODI place to Inglis after the first game of the 2023 World Cup.

He now has his hands higher, with the toe of the blade pointing over first slip’s head. The results have been phenomenal. He has looked one of the best players in Australian domestic cricket this summer, striking the ball with power and looking like he has so much time at the crease.

The technical tweak has helped his decision-making too. There were times in that 14-month lull when he was playing well but finding ways to get out through poor premeditated decision-making. He now feels less strongly about the need to premeditate.

“I’m just trying to keep a really level and consistent process batting,” Carey said. “I think, at times, potentially getting out in ways with premeditation, which can happen, and trying to do too many things at once. I’m just trying to stay quite clear now and react to the ball and back yourself to make the right decision.”

The addition of Inglis to the Test squad, coming off two Shield centuries himself and some superb white-ball form, is of no concern to Carey either. Inglis has been picked as the spare batter, as cover for the top six rather than Carey. The pair have played ODIs together and did so as recently as in September at Lord’s.

He acknowledged they could play in the same Test XI together at some stage which – as it did in the ODI team – could pave the way for Inglis to pinch his spot down the track. But Carey is pragmatic about the inferred pressure Inglis puts on his role as the No. 1 wicketkeeper.

“I understand it’s a unique position to be in,” Carey said. “There’s one wicketkeeper in a team, and there’s lots of quality around the country who are trying to get that spot and I was one of those players once. You focus on your game. You control what you can control.

“For me, it’s doing my job for this team, hopefully help us win games of cricket and play in this Test team as long as possible.”

“It’s the best form he’s been in,” Head said. “So for him, it’s trying not to overplay it and not worry about too much. I know he’s not. I think he’s in a great space. Has been for a while and now it’s starting to click for him. And once you sort of capture that form, you want to try to continue it on again. You’re never guaranteed that that happens, but I think he’s going to play a huge role in his position and in this team.”

Auckland asked Northern Districts to bat after winning the toss, and Williamson walked out to the crease at the fall of the first wicket. He hit seven boundaries in his 122-ball knock, which lasted for almost three hours. Williamson added 52 for the fourth wicket with Robert O’Donnell, before falling lbw to Jordan Sussex after a stand of 36 with Brett Hampton.

It was Williamson’s first match in the Plunket Shield after five years – he last played in the premier first-class competition in the country in October 2019.

“You always feel like an ND man, whether you are here or not,” he had said ahead of the game. “It is nice when, with the balance of the international schedule, you do have the opportunity to play.”

The first Test begins on November 28 in Christchurch, before the series moves to Wellington and Hamilton for the next two games. It will be Williamson’s long-time team-mate Tim Southee’s final Test series, unless New Zealand make the WTC final next year.

Bangladesh 253 for 7 dec (Jaker 48, Mahidul 41, Litton 31, Holder 2-48) drew with West Indies Select XI 87 for 9 (Melius 23, Murad 3-1, Mahmud 2-15)

Rain couldn’t completely dent Bangladesh’s only practice match on their tour of the West Indies, as the visitors had a pretty good outing against the West Indies Select XI in Coolidge.

The Bangladesh bowlers had a moderate workout on the second day. Taskin Ahmed and Hasan Mahmud took two wickets each, while Shoriful Islam and Mehidy Hasan Miraz also got one apiece.

One of Mahmud’s strikes, which came on the first evening, included that of the West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite, who was also leading the West Indies Select XI. That might end up boosting his confidence ahead of the first Test against West Indies, which starts in Antigua on Friday.

Mominul Haque, Bangladesh’s most experienced cricketer on tour, also made 31. Bangladesh’s concerns, though, will continue to revolve around the opening batters Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Zakir Hasan, who both got out cheaply.

For the West Indies Select XI, Jair McAllister and Holder had taken two wickets each, while Kimani Melius top-scored with 23 when they batted.

Australia 118 for 3 (Stoinis 61*, Inglis 27, Afridi 1-14) beat Pakistan 117 all out (Babar 41, Hardie 3-21, Zampa 2-11) by 7 wickets

Pakistan’s bright start

Pakistan came out with clear intent after they had shown precious little of it when trying to chase Australia down in the previous game. Sahibzada Farhan fell early, but what Pakistan were trying to do was obvious: take advantage of the Powerplay. Even Babar, usually a slow starter, found the boundary off the first ball and carried on in that vein. Haseebullah Khan was riding his luck somewhat, his edges finding the boundary, but that, too, was a product of flashing hard. The upshot was Pakistan racing to 58 – their highest powerplay score in an innings against Australia.

Zampa’s sorcery

Zampa’s impeccable control and skill makes him little short of a sorcerer in this format. For Pakistan, today, he was also their torturer – toying with batters at will as he varied pace, line, and variations, keeping batters second-guessing all the time.

It took him just five balls before he saw to it that Haseebullah’s luck ran out, the flash outside off stump finding short third. In his third over, he put an end to Babar’s entertaining knock, adjusting the flight of his delivery as he saw the batter running down the wicket, and cleaning up his stumps.

Even when he wasn’t taking wickets, he was piling on the pressure at the other end. Pakistan’s stand-in captain Salman Ali Agha played out five dot balls against him before he was put out of his misery by Aaron Hardie in the following over, and his figures of 4-0-11-2 didn’t remotely flatter him.

Pakistan’s balance

It’s difficult to expect the batters to play high-risk cricket when you simply don’t have enough batters. Pakistan had clearly briefed the team they expected aggression from the outset, even from players to whom it doesn’t come naturally. Usman Khan tends to take a few balls before being able to launch, but he came out from ball one looking to slog – even when the shot was never on. It never looked sustainable, as was demonstrated when he holed out off his fourth delivery, triggering a Pakistan collapse.

Every fall of wicket was made all the more concerning for the visitors because of the extreme length of their tail; they effectively ran out of batters when the fifth wicket fell, with Abbas Afridi coming out at No. 7. It proved a problem for them in the second game, too, and remains an issue they need to find a way to resolve.

Australia get on top of Haris – finally

A running theme in this series is Haris Rauf coming out and dominating whichever Australian batter he finds at the other end. This has been especially true of Glenn Maxwell, but Stoinis said post-match he told Haris this was the only time “one of us” got Haris’ number.

And Stoinis did so in enthralling fashion. At the end of the eighth over, Australia were 57 for 2, and Pakistan still believed they had time to insert jeopardy into the game. But the ninth over saw him clobber Haris for two fours and two sixes off the first four balls, with the final six flying out of the Bellerive Oval altogether. It began a passage of play that saw Stoinis plunder 45 off his next 12 deliveries, including a 25-run over off Shaheen Afridi. The following over, Abbas had Stoinis caught at deep square leg but had overstepped. Sixty-one runs came off the final 21 balls to draw curtains to the match and the series.