By Sheriff Michaels
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| Nashua Titans top Group A with two wins from as many matches |
DURBAN, South Africa (TheSportsNEXT) October 18, 2012: The South African Nashua Titans put brakes on an impressive winning run of Auckland Aces in the Champions League Twenty20 2012 on Wednesday when they outplayed them by 59 runs at Kingsmead in Durban.
With this victory, the Nashua Titans gave their Semi-Finals qualification chances a world of good as they now have won both of their matches and possess a healthy net-run-rate in the Group A.
After put into bat, the Nashua Titans made impressive 172 for four from their 20 overs before their bowlers never allowed the Auckland Aces to dictate terms and restricted them to a total of 113 all out from 18.1 overs.
This was the first defeat for the Auckland Aces in the tournament after they won their initial three matches which helped them qualifying into the main round of the Champions League Twenty2012.
Gareth Hopkins, skipper of Auckland Aces, won the toss and took no time in asking the local side to bat first backing his batsmen to chase down anything on offer.
Henry Davids (36 from 23 – 5 fours, 1 six) and Jacques Rudolph (63 from 56 – 7 fours) opened the batting for the Nashua Titans and provided a solid start scoring 74 runs from 8.2 overs before Azhar Mahmood got rid of Davids.
Skipper Martin van Jaarsveld (13 from 14) joined Rudolph and added another 26 runs for the second wicket before Kyle Mills removed him.
It all looked good for the Auckland Aces till the 18th over when Michael Bates sent back Rudolph but Farhaan Behardien (48 not out from 23 – 1 four, 3 sixes) used the long handle with some effect in the final two overs as the Titans scored 39 runs from the final 15 deliveries despite of Roelof van der Merwe (5 from 4) going back in the hut without doing much damage.
Veteran New Zealand bowler Kyle Mills proved an expensive option for the Auckland Aces as he was belted for 42 runs from his four overs for a wicket. Michael Bates bowled three overs for 21 runs besides taking a wicket while Azhar Mahmood also bowled well for figures of one for 32 from four overs. Another former Kiwi all-rounder Andre Adams went for 35 from his four overs while Ronnie Hira gave away 28 runs from his four.
Chasing 173 runs for victory was never an easy target for the Auckland Aces, especially against the Twenty20 specialist bowlers of Nashua Titans and soon the Kiwi side was in quagmire of problems with their explosive opening batsmen Lou Vincent (6 from 6 – 1 six) and Martin Guptill (3 from 8) going back in the pavilion.
Auckland’s ace in previous matches Pakistani star all-rounder Azhar Mahmood (7 from 9) also failed to deliver the goods as the side looked struggling at three down for 37 from 5.1 overs.
It all came on the young shoulders of Anaru Kitchen (23 from 12 – 3 fours, 1 six) and Colin de Grandhomme (14 from 11 – 1 four, 1 six) but their lack of experience came in the way of success as Kitchen lost his cool and patience and tried to slog everything and was held in the deep by Farhaan Behardien off Links.
Once the top five batsmen were gone, the chase was officially off for the Auckland Aces as Colin Munro (4 from 5), skipper Gareth Hopkins (8 from 12 – 1 four), Ronnie Hira (Duck), and Kyle Mills (1 from 3) all looked sheer failure against a quality bowling attack of Nashua Titans.
Andre Adams (30 from 17 – 2 fours, 2 sixes) came up with a flurry of boundaries towards the end of the innings in a bid to give some respect to his side in a losing cause and help them reduce the deficit in net-run-rate but when he was bowled by the Titans’ Twenty20 specialist bowler Alfonso Thomas, it was all over for the Auckland Aces.
In the end, Auckland Aces were bowled out for 113 runs with 11 balls to spare, thus falling 59 runs short of the target.
Ethy Mbhalati and Alfonso Thomas were clinical with the ball for the Nashua Titans as they recorded figures of 4-1-26-3 and 3.1-0-18-3, respectively.
Cornelius de Villiers also bowled well for figures of one for 24 from his three overs while Eden Links and Roelof van der Merwe also were impressive with the ball with returns of 4-0-25-1 and 4-0-18-1, respectively.
Farhaan Behardien was declared Man of the Match for his super heroics with the bat in dying stages of the innings of Nashua Titans who are comfortably placed on top of the Group A with eight points from two matches. Auckland Aces have four points from two matches.
Farhaan Behardien told the presentation party, "I bided by time, and it was only during the last two overs that I capitalized”.
Nashua Titans skipper Martin van Jaarsveld said, "Asked the bowlers to hit the deck really hard, when they do that, it is easy to captain. Behardien is a great finisher. He's done that for us all summer."
Auckland Aces captain Gareth Hopkins said, "The batting let us down. We were happy to restrict them to 170. We have to move on quickly from this."
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