MARCUS STOINIS seized his chance to nail down the No 3 slot as Australia won their first match since their toxic sandpaper tour.
Stoinis scored 110 from 112 balls in a 57-run victory over Sussex at Hove.
He is one of the players likely to get increased white ball opportunities in the absence of banned duo David Warner and Steve Smith.
The Aussies were caught red-handed using sandpaper to scrape the ball during the Third Test in Cape Town.
Smith, Warner and Test opener Cameron Bancroft were banned and coach Darren Lehmann quit.
New coach Justin Langer and skipper Tim Paine are promising a new era in which abusing opponents is outlawed.
That sounds great – but the important thing is to carry on winning.
And Sussex, after a decent start with Phil Salt and Laurie Evans making half-centuries, lost a cluster of wickets and slumped from 130-2 to 220 all out.
There was no sign of anybody on the field handling sandpaper although the Aussies were wearing yellow kit, the perfect camouflage for such jiggery pokery!
The sell-out 6,000 crowd offered nothing more abrasive that a couple of drunken choruses of: “If you all like sandpaper, claps your hands.”
But, anyway, this is a different Australian team from that which disgraced itself earlier in the year.
Tim Paine was the only player in the starting line-up who played in Cape Town, although Shaun Marsh and Nathan Lyon are also members of the one-day squad here.
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Aaron Finch and D’Arcy Short provided Australia with a flying start and they sped to 74-0 after ten overs. They slowed down but were still on course for around 350 when they reached 167-1 after 30 overs.
But wickets fell regularly as only Stoinis stayed for long.
Australia play Middlesex on Saturday and the first of five one-dayers against England is at the Oval next Wednesday.
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