By Sheriff Michaels
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| An Imposing Victory Takes Sydney Sixers into Semi-Final of Champions League Twenty20 2012 |
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (TheSportsNEXT) October 16, 2012: A professional and dominating show by bowlers and blend of aggression and class by batsmen helped Australian Big Bash League’s Sydney Sixers to an astounding victory over England’s Yorkshire County Cricket Club in their Group B match of the Champions League Twenty20 2012 played at Newlands in Cape Town on Tuesday.
The victory also took the Sydney Sixers into Semi-Final of the Champions League Twenty20 2012 as they now have won both of their matches and Tuesday’s massive victory has boosted their net run-rate enough to make sure they end on top of the table.
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| A Captain's Knock by Brad Haddin |
Sydney Sixers restricted the Yorkshire on 96 for nine from their 20 overs before overhauling the target for the loss of only two wickets with 67 balls to spare.
Yorkshire skipper Andrew Gale won the toss and decided to bat first to give his bowlers a good total to defend against a high-flying Sixers batting line-up.
However, it wasn’t to be! The crucial Group B match proved a show of the worst and the best by batsmen of the both sides as on a pitch where Yorkshire batsmen failed to find their feet, Sydney Sixers top order batsmen enjoyed the bouncy nature of the track and expressed their skills freely.
Yorkshire opening pair of skipper Andrew Gale (8 from 18 – 1 four) and Phil Jaques (21 from 19 – 4 fours) failed to produce a rollicking start as both were back in the hut with total at 30 runs from 6.2 overs.
Joe Root (15 from 24 – 3 fours, 1 six) and Adam Lyth (18 from 25 – 1 four) tried to stabilize the dwindling ship but they could never find that acceleration button in their armor and scoring rate remained under five runs per over for the best part of the innings with wickets falling consistently.
Gary Ballance (8 from 17), Adil Rashid (1 from 2), Dan Hodgson (7 from 7 – 1 four), and Azeem Rafiq (Duck) all failed to find boundary rather regularly and when Mitchell Starc clean-bowled Steven Patterson (2 from 3) it was all over for Yorkshire who were restricted to 96 for nine from their share of 20 overs.
Left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc captured three wickets for 22 runs while Pat Cummins and Shane Watson grabbed two wickets apiece for 22 and 27 runs, respectively. Josh Hazlewood also bowled tremendously well during a miser spell as he gave away only nine runs from his four overs for a wicket. Moises Henriques also looked good with figures of one for 10 from his two overs.
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| Shane Watson further augments his reputation |
The 97-run target was never a challenging task for a team like Sydney Sixers, especially on a bouncy pitch at Newlands.
Although, Shane Watson (11 from 6 – 1 four, 1 six) failed to utilize the beautiful batting conditions, Michael Lumb (43 not out from 24 – 8 fours) and Brad Haddin (41 from 21 – 8 fours) pounced on the opportunity and added 78 runs for the second wicket from mere 42 balls to take Yorkshire completely out of contention.
The Sydney Sixers completed the target from fifth delivery of the eighth over which means they achieved their target with 67 balls to spare.
Brad Haddin was declared Man of the Match for his exhibition of a blend of class and aggression with the bat.
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| Yorkshire completely blown away! |
Yorkshire skipper Andrew Gale said at the presentation ceremony, "150-160 would have been a good score. But we didn't get off to a good start, and we were chasing the game from thereon. We have learned valuable lessons from today, have three games left, and will hopefully reverse the result on Thursday."
Brad Haddin, who is also skipper of the Sydney Sixers, told the interviewer after receiving his Man of the Match award, “We had a few things we needed to work on after the first game. The best thing about the three fast bowlers was they bowled differently, presenting different challenges to the batsmen. I am pretty lucky they are all looking to have a go. We still got to get better and better as the tournament goes on."
