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Australian Twenty20 captain George Bailey is convinced Adelaide Strikers star import Alex Hales can be contained by Big Bash League opponents.
Hales, the world’s No.1 T20 batsman, lived up to his big reputation by blasting 49 from just 19 balls in his opening BBL innings against the Hobart Hurricanes on Sunday.
The Englishman smacked nine fours and a six to help the Strikers bolt out of the blocks at Bellerive in a match reduced to eight overs-a-side before rain caused it to be abandoned at 1-87 from six overs.
But Hurricanes and Australian skipper Bailey said Hales can be stopped by teams that do their homework.
“That’s a couple of innings now where I feel like he’s a lucky Twenty20 player,” Bailey said.
“He’s a beautiful striker of the ball, he’s a big strong man and he hits it really clean, but I think that the balls that sort of fly to third man, I’ve seen him do that a lot.
“There’ll be times I think when he’ll come off just through his brute force and power but I think there’ll be teams that work him out as well.”
Hales certainly had his share of luck, infuriating Hurricanes paceman Doug Bollinger (0-21 from two) when he top-edged two hook shots to the boundary in the fourth over.
But the 24-year-old also had Adelaide rocketing along at more than 16 per over before he was run out attempting to reach one of the quickest fifties in BBL history.
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Hales admitted to a slice of luck and said the No.1 ranking was far from his mind.
“I’m trying not to think about it to be honest,” he said.
“My international career has started off nicely but this tournament’s very tough and I’m going to be on top of my game if I’m going to do well in it.”
Bailey is wary of the international rankings.
“There’s luck in the game, isn’t there, so you need that a little bit,” he said.
“I don’t know how they work them out.
“There’s no doubt he’s a very, very good Twenty20 player.”
Persistent drizzle meant the game was delayed by around an hour-and-a-half and reduced to eight overs per side.
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Bailey won the toss and sent the Strikers in before the match was abandoned at around 4pm (AEDT).
