The third umpire disagreed, and after Sansom left, the Royals gradually faded away, closing on 8-201.

Fraser-McGurk’s freewheeling innings defied the painful blow he took to the midriff from the bowling of Kiwi speedster Trent Boult.

“He’s hardly put a foot wrong since he’s been here. He hasn’t surprised me with what he’s done,” Ponting said post match.

“I had a good look at him in the BBL and knew what he was capable of.”

With 309 runs from seven innings, including four half-centuries, Fraser-McGurk is rocketing up the IPL batting charts despite missing selection for Delhi in the early rounds.

He’s now the 25th highest run-scorer in the comp, but most of those above him have batted 10 or 11 times, and none have a strike rate over 200 to compare with his 235.87.

His most eye-catching innings so far was the blistering 84 he amassed from just 27 balls days before the Australian selectors finalised their World Cup squad.

Days later, he told Willow Talk Cricket Podcast he understood the reasons he had not been included and appreciated the messaging coming from the selectors.

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“The communication was really good. There’s two ways you can look at it. You can look at it through, ‘This is what I’ve done to prove my case,’ and then there’s also, ‘Look, a month and a half ago I wasn’t even in the picture,’” he said.

“They [the selectors] probably had a good idea … of what it was a month-and-a-half ago trying to build that, how they can get the connection in that team.

“And it’s also hard to fit in. You’ve got David Warner, our best opener ever in three formats. You’ve got Travis Head, who’s lighting it up over here and has lit up for the past 18 months. And then Mitch Marsh is the same and he’s also the captain.”