White's IPL nightmare ends

Cameron White had come into the inaugural IPL touted as one of the hottest Twenty20 talents around, with Royal Challengers Bangalore betting big on him though he was still a fringe player for Australia. The Royal Challengers stint was a debacle, but then White had his best phase in international cricket over the year or so leading into the 2011 auction, culminating in him being named Australia's Twenty20 captain and Deccan Chargers splashing $1.1m on him.

He proved an expensive liability for Chargers last season, and coming into the game against Pune Warriors, like his team, he had done little of note this year. In the interim he had not just been sacked from the captaincy of the Australia Twenty20 side, he had lost his place in it as well. The inaugural Big Bash League had also been a disaster, as he scratched out 55 runs in eight matches.

The nightmare finally came to an end at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune, as he slammed 78 against Warriors, setting up Chargers' first victory of the season. The familiar, muscular straight hits made a reappearance in what was his first IPL half-century and, staggeringly, his first half-century in any official cricket since December 2010.

The sale of Kevin Pietersen was expected to open up opportunities for White this year, but he has only played half of Chargers' matches. Despite the faith shown by the franchises in him at successive auctions, White has never done well enough to become a permanent member of either of his IPL teams. The Man-of-the-Match performance against Warriors could be his first stride towards changing that, and also a step in his long journey back to the Australia team.