By Sheriff Michaels
 |
| Sydney Sixers to meet Highveld Lions in CLT20 Final |
CENTURION, South Africa (TheSportsNEXT) October 27, 2012: High-flying Sydney Sixers left it late to defeat Nashua Titans by two wickets on final delivery of their Semi-Final encounter in the Champions League Twenty20 2012 at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Friday.
Sydney Sixers have joined Highveld Lions in the Champions League Twenty20 2012 Final which will be played on October 28 (Sunday) at Johannesburg.
After winning the toss, the South African domestic Twenty20 champions Nashua Titans decided to bat first and put on a formidable total of 163 runs on the board for the loss of five wickets after losing half of their batsmen for mere 82 runs from 13.3 overs.
Nashua Titans’ top-scoring batsman in CLT20 Jacques Rudolph (1 from 5) failed to live up to the expectations and his partner Heino Kuhn (13 from 15 – 3 fours) also couldn’t put up a good show with the bat as the opening pair was back in the pavilion with total at 22 from four overs.
Skipper Martin van Jaarsveld (5 from 4 – 1 four) and an in-form Farhaan Behardien (14 from 21) couldn’t provide the goods for the home side as a quagmire of problems started haunting the domestic T20 champions big.
Nashua Titans were reeling at 82/5 after 13.3 overs as all-rounder Roelof van der Merwe (1 from 3) lost his wicket to Henriques and needed someone to raise his game to the big occasion.
However, opening batsman Henry Davids (59 not out from 44 – 3 fours, 3 sixes) and David Wiese (61 not out from 28 – 6 fours, 4 sixes) played the innings of their lifetimes and hit 81 runs from final 45 balls and hit 72 runs off the last four overs to give their side a reasonable chance of setting up a rematch of the South Africa’s domestic T20 competition final.
Josh Hazelwood proved his mettle yet again for the Sydney Sixers with figures of 1 for 19 from his four overs as Titans batsmen found it difficult to get him away to the ropes. Mitchell Starc proved a little expensive for his two wickets for 33 runs while his fellow fast bowler Pat Cummins proved the biggest failure with the ball for the Australian domestic T20 champions as he went for 51 runs from his four overs. Steve O’Keefe was methodical with the ball as he allowed only 19 runs from his 24 deliveries while Moises Henriques grabbed a wicket for 36 runs.
Sydney Sixers got off to a confident start with Steve O’Keefe (32 from 21 – 6 fours) and Michael Lumb (33 from 19 – 6 fours, 1 six) scoring 54 for the opening wicket partnership from only 4.5 overs.
The opening wicket partnership took the sting out of the target as the asking run-rate dropped down to 7.33 runs per over from original 8.2 runs per over.
Nic Maddison (20 from 15 – 2 fours, 1 six) kept the momentum and with O’Keefe added 31 valuable runs for the second wicket from 21 balls as match started to slip away from Nashua Titans.
However, three quick wickets of Nic Maddison, skipper Brad Haddin (3 from 5) and Steve O’Keefe brought Nashua Titans back in the reckoning and when Steve Smith (3 from 6) was run out at 113 runs, the Sydney Sixers had already lost half of their side still having to do a lot to win the affair.
Asking rate was not really a problem but wickets were tumbling down quickly which put Sydney Sixers under tremendous pressure and their lower middle-order batsmen needed to take rearguard action. Moises Henriques (28 from 18 – 1 four, 2 sixes) and Ben Rohrer (21 from 24 – 1 four) kept Sydney Sixers in the hunt but when Henriques was removed by Mbhalati, Nathan McCullum (Duck) came as a wicket-tumbling package for the Nashua Titans.
The game became more intriguing with Rohrer getting out on second ball of the penultimate over thus leaving everything on the young shoulders of two fast bowlers Pat Cummins (14 not out from 10 – 1 six) and Mitchell Starc (0 not out from 1) as a couple of leg byes were followed by a smartly taken bye on final delivery of the match which made them cross the line with two wickets in hand.
It was arguably the best match of the Champions League Twenty20 2012 and both teams were evenly poised to win it but Sydney Sixers showed better understanding of how to tackle pressure in a pressure-cooker situation and managed to steal victory from the jaws of defeat.
Alfonso Thomas took two wickets for 36 runs while Eden Links (3-0-24-1), Ethy Mbhalati (4-0-34-1), Cornelius de Villiers (3-0-31-1) and Roelof van der Merwe (4-0-23-1) all took one wicket apiece.
Steve O’Keefe was declared Man of the Match for an all-round performance as the mouth-watering Australia vs South Africa final of the Champions League Twenty20 will be played on Sunday.
Man of the Match Steve O’Keefe told the presentation party, “Opening the batting was good fun. Hadds (Brad Haddin) came to me three days ago if I wanted to open, and I jumped at the opportunity. Probably the first time I have been Man of the Match without taking a wicket, but I will take it. Not our most clinical performance, but we have a final coming up”.
Sydney Sixers skipper Brad Haddin said, “We got our jail-free card. No matter what format you play, you have got to execute your skills. We panicked a bit, I think, but we are going into the final. We can think of anything of this game, but the bottom line is we have a final to play this Sunday. We have played Lions before, and they are similarly stacked as us. I think the two best teams have made it to the final”.
Nashua Titans captain Martin van Jaarsveld told the presenter, “Really disappointed but really proud how we kept fighting. With the bat we were down and out. I have been talking him up through the tournament, and boy did he shine tonight. Our execution up top is not where we'd like it to be, and that's where we lost. A bitter pill to swallow!”
