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Brother dents Hussey’s Ashes hopes

SYDNEY - Australian batsman Mike Hussey’s hopes of securing a spot in the team for the first Ashes test suffered a blow on Wednesday when he was caught out by his brother David for a duck. The experienced middle-order batsman was named in Australia’s 17-strong squad for the Ashes opener on Monday but selectors made it clear that this week’s domestic matches would have a bearing on who made it into the final line-up.

Lefthander Hussey went in to bat at number three for Western Australia against Victoria at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday but had faced just 17 deliveries without scoring when he edged the ball to his younger brother at second slip.

The 35-year-old, who has scored 734 runs over the last two Ashes series but has hit a poor patch of form of late, was one of the players expected to come under pressure from uncapped test batting talents Callum Ferguson and Usman Khawaja.

Fortunately for the man nicknamed “Mr Cricket”, Ferguson (7) and Khawaja (13) failed to make an impression for Australia A against England’s second string bowlers on Wednesday’s first morning of the tourists’ final warm-up match in Hobart.

England’s top bowlers — James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Steve Finn and Graeme Swann — have skipped the four-day match and headed up to Brisbane to acclimatise before the first test, which begins on Nov. 25.