Elbow and back injuries have kept Jofra Archer out for almost 18 months, but the England paceman made a fine return to competitive cricket for MI Cape Town in the South Africa T20 cricket league, taking 3-27, including two wickets in two balls.
Wednesday 11 January 2023 08:39, UK
Jofra Archer picked up three wickets, including two in two balls, on his return from a near 18-month injury layoff in the South Africa T20 cricket league.
In his first competitive match back for MI Cape Town, Archer had Wihan Lubbe caught out on the third ball of his opening over, which was a maiden, before taking two more wickets in his third over, in successive balls, to finish with figures of 3-27, a spell that included 12 dot balls.
England captain Jos Buttler helped the Paarl Royals recover from Lubbe's early dismissal with a 42-ball 51 to help his side post 142-7 from their 20 overs.
Archer was joined by fellow England bowlers Sam Curran and Olly Stone, with the latter taking two wickets, while Jason Roy and Eoin Morgan made 13 and 19 respectively for the Royals.
Archer's MI Cape Town comfortably beat Paarl Royals by eight wickets.
Elbow problems and a stress fracture to his back have kept Archer sidelined since March 2021 but he had a solid showing on his first outing in November, bowling nine overs as the Lions took on England in Abu Dhabi before the Pakistan Test series.
大调的ing the training camp in Abu Dhabi, England's managing director of men's cricket, Rob Key, confirmed Archer's phased return to cricket.
"Our plan for him is he will play two games in the South African franchise [competition], which will be his first competitive cricket. If he gets through that, we will pick him for the South Africa ODI series, so he will go from four overs to 10 overs," Key said in November.
Archer needs games to get back up to full fitness ahead of a bumper year of cricket for England, with an Ashes series and ODI World Cup on the horizon.
All the matches from the SA20 league will be shown live onSky Sports Cricket, after a five-year rights deal was announced.
The competition will run for a month and comprises 33 matches featuring six franchises made up of several household names from around the world.
The six teams will play each other twice in a round-robin stage, before the semi-finals and final.
