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NSW clinch inaugural CLT20
HYDERABAD, OCTOBER 23: In true reflection of Australian grit, New South Wales, who should have counted themselves out at the end of the first half, raised their game several notches to bowl out favourites Trinidad and Tobago for 118 and take the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 title.
The Big Bash winners, who managed a modest 159 for 9 earlier in the evening, turned in a team effort to bowl out the boys from the Caribbean for 118 in under sixteen overs to clinch the final by a convincing margin of 41 runs.
After starring with the bat earlier in the evening, Brett Lee, steamed in with a new Kookaburra in hand and picked up two wickets in his first two overs to derail the Trinidad and Tobago innings at the very start of the run chase. The rest of the Blues bowlers kept nipping wickets at regular intervals, and the fielders supported them in the field by taking some outstanding catches, to never really give Trinidad and Tobago any kind of momentum in the run chase.
Lee, who averaged 149 kph (excluding the two slower deliveries he bowled) in his spell, got the innings off to a sensational start. His dismissal of William Perkins, is a sight fast bowlers would love to see; Perkins stepped to leg and exposed his stumps with the intention of playing through the off side, but Lee bowled one at 150.2 kph, landed it full and straight, beat the batsman for pace and knocked two of his three stumps out of the ground.
Adrian Barath thrashed leg-spinner Steven Smith, who shared the new ball with Lee, for two boundaries and a six off his first three deliveries, but perished when he outside edged a longhop to the wicketkeeper.
Lee then returned and accounted for the wicket of Lendl Simmons, but this time with a slower delivery bowled at 110 kph. Simmons made room and tried to hammer straight down the ground, but didn't quite pick the change of pace and played a tad too early, only to watch Lee move swiftly and take the return catch with ease. Dwayne Bravo played some exquisite shots in his brief innings of 17; he got off the mark with a lofted off-drive which raced away to the long off boundary, caressed Doug Bollinger for a six over long on in the following over, and then picked up a boundary through point. But his brief innings was cut short when, attempting to dead bat a short delivery from Bollinger, he only managed a thick inside edge which crashed back onto his stumps. Daren Ganga (19) and Denesh Ramdin negotiated the next few overs without any further damage; the pair added 23 runs over the next 26 deliveries, before the skipper hit a half-tracker from Steven Smith straight do David Warner at point.
That left the last two recognised batsmen - Kieron Pollard and Ramdin - at the crease, and the equation facing them was 92 runs from 10 overs. But Ramdin's dismissal in the fourteenth over put paid to all of Trinidad and Tobago's hopes.
The big-hitting Pollard tried to revive the run chase with a few lusty blows; he hit three sixes in his brief knock of 26 (15 balls), but his dismissal at the hands of Nathan Hauritz meant the Red Brigade were well and truly out of the race.
Stuart Clark picked up the wickets of Navin Stewart and Dave Mohammed in his final over - the sixteenth of the innings - to draw the curtains on the run chase. 'The McGrathesque' Blues bowler was the most successful bowler for his team, finishing with figures of 3 for 21. Lee (2/10), Steven Smith (2/32), Hauritz (2/23) and Bollinger (1/27) chipped in with wickets.
Earlier in the evening, New South Wales, who were asked to take first strike on a great batting surface, made a mess of a great opportunity to post a competitive total on the board when their top order fell apart without posting too many runs on the board.
The two left-handed openers - David Warner and Phil Hughes - tried to break the early shackles built by the Trinidad and Tobago bowlers, but paid for it by being too aggressive. Hughes' attempted heave across the line saw his stumps rattled, while Warner slashed away from his body, but couldn't get past point.
Simon Katich (16) hit Dwayne Bravo for two sixes, but perished as he attempted to hit a third one. Moises Henriques couldn't contribute too much with the bat, while Ben Rohrer made a quick-fire 16.
From 75 for 5 in the eleventh over, the Blues slipped further down into trouble when wicketkeeper Daniel Smith (3) was cleaned up by Ravi Rampaul. But then came the rescue act - from unlikely quarters too.
Brett Lee joined Steven Smith in the middle with his team reeling at 83 for six in the twelfth over, and the pair bailed their team out of trouble by adding 49 runs over the next six overs. Smith was dismissed in the eighteenth over after he'd made 33 from 26 balls, aided with two boundaries and a six. Lee, meanwhile, in his first meaningful innings in the competition, waltzed his way to his career-best performance with the bat in Twenty20 cricket; he hit five sixes - each one of them coming off the middle of the bat, each one clearing the fence by a comfortable distance, and four of them straight down the ground - in a 31-ball innings during which he scored 48.
Ravi Rampaul was once again the pick of the bowlers; he used the crease and the angles well - bowling from both sides of the wicket, varied his lengths and pace well, to finish with impressive figures of 3 for 20. Bravo, despite getting hit for three sixes, picked up two wickets while conceding 27 runs in his three overs. Sherwin Ganga (1/29), Kieron Pollard (1/27) and Dave Mohammed (1/19) were the other wicket-takers. (c) CLT20 |
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Cric Contest Ratings |
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 Tests
ODIs
T-20
Combined |
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First ever Premier Ratings. Who leads whom? A unique formula devised by the criccontest team.  |
| Mohandas Menon |
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