Trinidad & Tobago to face NSW Blues in CL T20 final

HYDERABAD: Dwayne Bravo struck form with a bludgeoning 34-ball 58 as Trinidad and Tobago stretched their unbeaten run to the final of the

Champions League, thrashing Cape Cobras by seven wickets in the blood-and-guts second semi-final on Thursday.

Scorecard | In Pics

Chasing a stiff 176 to set up final with NSW Blues, Bravo and skipper Daren Ganga (44) produced a match-winning unbeaten 93-run stand for the fourth wicket and overhauled the target with four balls to spare at Rajiv Gandhi stadium.

Riding on fantastic knocks of JP Duminy (62 not out) and Herschelle Gibbs (42), Cape Cobras put up a competitive 175 for five in 20 overs, after opting to bat.

The match was evenly balanced as the Caribbean had lost three wickets at the half-way mark but Bravo and Ganga batted fearlessly and took the match away from the South Africans, who were let down by some poor fielding.

Bravo’s knock was laced with four fours and three sixes while Daren Ganga’s unbeaten knock was studded with one hour and two sixes.

The Caribbean side made a blazing start to their chase as William Perkins (20) and Adrian Barath (29) rattled up 53 in the first five overs.

Charl Langeveldt bowled two cheap overs and it was Monde Zondeki who had a first hand experience of the Caribbean fury.

Barath creamed Zondeki for two fours and a six in his first over and Perkins smashed him for three boundaries in his second over as the poor paceman ended up giving away 30 runs out of 38 on the board.

Rory Kleinvedlt was welcomed with a four by Perkins and Barath got into action with a four and six before a terrible mix up between the duo resulted in run out of Perkins.

Duminy came in and strcuk in the second ball, trapping Barath and the two rampaging openers were back in the hut.

Lendl Simmons (20) hit Claude Henderson for a massive six over long-off and got two lives when he was dropped by Henry Davids once off Henderson and few balls later off Duminy.

Justin Ontong got rid of Simmons in the first ball of his spell when he had him caught by Kleinveldt at mid-wicket as the Caribbean side reach 85 at half-way mark.

Skipper Daren and Bravo then erected that magnificent partnership to steer their side to yet another win.

Earlier, Duminy showed patience when his partners were changing quickly from the other end and cut loose towards the end to shape the innings of his side.

The 40-ball knock of the left-hander was adorned with four fours and three sixes.

Gibbs, struggling for runs, struck form when it mattered most as he smashed his way to 27-ball 42, which provided the impetus to the South African innings in the first half.

His entertaining knock was laced with five fours and one shot over the ropes. Gibbs made his intent clear when he lofted paceman Ravi Rampaul for an effortless six over the extra cover.

Spinner Sherwin Ganga, drew the first blood when rival skipper Andrew Puttick (10) went for a pull, missed the line and found his timber disturbed.

Davids came to the pitch and smacked a boundary in the third ball he faced from Sherwin, making a positive start.

The fireworks began as Gibbs showed scant respect to Bravo, the highest wicket taker of the tournament, creaming him for 18 runs by hitting four smart on-side boundaries in the sixth over of the innings.

Daren brought in Dave Mohammed and the left-arm spinner responded with the wicket of Davids (7), who was done in by a splendid catch by the bowler off his own bowling.

Duminy continued with his fine form, hitting Mohammed for a four and a six, maintaining the good run-rate.

Gibbs survived a stumping chance off Kieron Pollard in the last ball of the eight over but Pollard got his man as he bowled him in the first ball of his next over.

Rory Kleinveldt (21) came to the pitch and straight away made an impact by hitting Navin Stewart and Pollard for huge sixes but departed soon while attempting another big shot off Simmons.

Duminy on the other hand was batting sensibly, taking sharp singles and picking up occasional boundaries.

After completing his fifty, Duminy opened up and smashed Bravo for a four and a six, pushing the accelerator button.

Source : TOI

Mishra strikes twice as Cobras are 5 down

Playing for pride, Delhi Daredevils set a target of 115 runs against the Cape Cobras with O Shah (39) remains the top scorer in their Champions League match.

Teams-

Cape Cobras team
AG Puttick, HH Gibbs, H Davids, JP Duminy, JL Ontong, VD Philander, RCC Canning, RK Kleinveldt, CW Henderson, M Zondeki, FC Plaatjies

Delhi Daredevils team
G Gambhir, TM Dilshan, KD Karthik, MK Tiwary, OA Shah, Y Nagar, R Bhatia, A Mishra, PJ Sangwan, DP Nannes, AM Salvi

Source: Hindustan Times

Sehwag, Uthappa named in initial Champions League All-Stars

Two Indian cricketers Virender Sehwag and Robin Uthappa have found berth in the initial Airtel Champions League Twenty20 All-Stars XI chosen by ESPN Star Sports commentators.

Swashbuckling Sehwag, who has returned to top flight competition after recovering from a shoulder injury sustained during the Indian Premier League competition in South Africa in May, is the lone Delhi Daredevils player who has made the cut.

Uthappa, ignored by the national selectors for the first two ODIs against Australia, is one among three players from Royal Challengers Bangalore to earn the distinction, a media release said today.

Players from RCB, Cape Cobras of South Africa, Victorian Bushrangers of Australia and Trinidad and Tobago from the West Indies dominated the list.

The CLT20 All Stars XI contains six batsmen, four bowlers and one wicket-keeper based on the opening rounds of the tournament, the release said.

To be considered for selection in the All Stars XI, a player must be ranked in the top 20 for batting (runs scored), top 15 for bowling (wickets taken) or among the top four wicket-keepers (dismissals).

Source : Hindustan Times

Bravo! Deadly T & T blow Somerset away in style

A marathon players’ strike may have held cricket to ransom in the West Indies, but it was England’s Somerset County Cricket Club (SCC) who failed to turn up for duty as they crumbled for 106 against a young Trinidad&Tobago side.

Chasing a moderate 150 the county side fell short by 44 runs allowing the Trinidad team a thrilling victory in their maiden Champions League tie.

Trinidad skipper Darren Ganga’s tryst with Lady luck began with the toss, and, despite a jittery performance with the bat, the team came back strong with the ball.

Dwayne Bravo, who was out for a first-ball duck, scalped four wickets — Marcus Trescothick and Craig Kieswetter being the two dangermen to fall prey to him.

Bravo teased Trescothick with a ball that shaped away from the Somerset opener, kissing his willow on the way. Left-arm spinner Dave Mohammed picked up 2 for 18 from 4 overs. Barring Zander de Bruyn (43 not out) and skipper Justin Langer (15), none of the Somerset batsmen could reach double-digits.

Batting first, the Trinidad batsmen were off to a flier, but were guilty of wanton strokeplay. Openers Lendl Simmons and William Perkins teed off early and it seemed all hell had broken loose on the county side.

Somerset’s new ball bowlers, Charl Willoughby and Alfonso Thomas, failed to stamp an early authority, with Simmons devising inventive ways of finding the fence. He set the tone with an elegant forward push off Willoughby for four in the first over.

Thomas’s last-match heroics nearly paled into insignificance when Simmons sent him screaming over extra cover for four.  Ben Phillips broke the partnership when Simmons flapped loosely at a short ball to deposit a catch at third man. Perkins followed his partner when Willoughby rattled his timbers in the sixth over.

Darren Bravo announced his arrival with a towering six over long off, but Willoughby pulled off an incredible return catch to send the danger man back. But the biggest disappointment was Dwayne Bravo’s first-ball duck. Somerset’s Max Waller tossed one up outside off and Bravo gleefully chased it to offer an easy catch at short third man.

Skipper Darren Ganga tried to anchor the innings and even struck a four and a six in his 18-ball stay at the wicket. And after his wicket, it was Denesh Ramdin’s a run-a-ball 39 that helped to post 150-run target.

Trinidad & Tobago
Simmons c Thomas b Phillips 22, Perkins b Willoughby 20, Darren Bravo  c & b Willoughby 9, D Ganga b Waller 23, Dwayne Bravo c Suppiah b Waller 0, Ramdin b Thomas 39, Pollard c Suppiah b Willoughby 12, Rampaul b Thomas 2, S Ganga not out 18, Mohammed run out 0, Badree not out 1

Extras (w-4) 4
Total (9 wkts; 20 overs) 150
Fall of wkts: 1-43, 2-49, 3-59, 4-60, 5-90, 6-121, 7-128, 8-149, 9-149.
Bowling: Willoughby 4-0-35- 3, Thomas 4-0-26-2, Phillips 4-0-43-1, Waller 4-0-27-2, Suppiah 4-0-19-0 .

Somerset
Trescothick c Ramdin b Dwayne Bravo 3, Langer c Perkins b S Ganga 15, Kieswetter c Darren Bravo b Dwayne Bravo 4, de Bruyn not out 43, Suppiah b Mohammed 6, Trego c Darren Bravo b Mohammed 6, Hildreth run out 0, Phillips c Simmons b S Ganga 5, Thomas run out 9, Waller b Dwayne Bravo 1, Willoughby b Dwayne Bravo 0

Extras (lb-7, w-7) 14
Total (in 20 overs) 106
Fall of wkts: 1-13, 2-26, 3-28, 4-52, 5-69, 6-69, 7-74, 8-96, 9-106.
Bowling: Rampaul 3-0-14-0, Dwayne Bravo 4-0-23-4, Badree 4-0-20-0, S Ganga 3-0-16-2, Mohammed 4-0-18-2, Pollard 2-0-8-0

Jacques lowers Volt-age

If Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) had intended to set a benchmark in the inaugural Champions League, this was it. They duly beat Otago Volts by 80 runs and qualified for the league stage of the premier Twenty20 event.

The home team approached the game with a well-set plan, and, thanks to a combined team effort, the hosts came out triumphs in a one-sided clash.

RCB skipper Anil Kumble won the toss for the second time in a row and opted to bat. The idea must have been to post a good total on the board and let the Otago Volts chase the target. And that the home side was not willing to take any undue risk was evident in the openers, Robin Uthappa and Jacques Kallis’s cautious approach. Uthappa shed his aggressor’s role for a change and looked to build a partnership with Kallis. And the ploy succeeded as the duo put on the best opening partnership (75 runs) for the RCB, improving their previous best of 69.

Uthappa gradually started launching his big hits, one nearly knocking off Ian Butler’s head in the latter’s second over. The ball was on the slot and Uthappa slammed it past Butler’s head. He tonked Dimitri Mascarenhas for a huge six over long on and reverse swept Nathan McCullum for four. But Otago skipper Craig Cumming took a stunning catch to stub out Uthappa off Aaron Redmond in the 10th over.

Kallis hammered an unbeaten 73 off 59 balls, his best score in Twenty20 so far. With Virat Kohli, he added 59 runs for the second-wicket.

Kohli was quick to get off the blocks with a first-ball boundary and scored a breezy 32 off just 19 deliveries. Ross Taylor blasted 24 off the last five balls to take RCB’s total to a challenging 188.

The Volts wilted under pressure after Kallis snapped up the top three batsmen within the first six overs. When they returned, after a light drizzle held up play in the eighth over, the fizz was gone. Wickets continued to tumble from either end, and the Kiwi side folded up for a paltry 108 in 17.5 overs. Kallis was the pick of the RCB bowlers with figures of 3 for 18 from four overs. He was awarded the man of the match for his all-round performance.

Royal Challengers
Kallis not out 73, Uthappa c Cumming b Redmond 42, Kohli c N McCullum b Wagner 32, Taylor not out 32
Extras (lb-1, w-8) 9
Total (for 2 wkts; 20 overs)
188
Fall of wickets: 1-75, 2-134
Bowling: Wagner 4-0-27-1, Mascarenhas 4-0-37-0, Butler 3.3-0-42-0, McSkimming 3.3-0-38-0, N McCullum 2-0-20-0, Redmond 3-0-23-1.
Otago Volts
B McCullum c Kumble b Kallis 5, Redmond c Uthappa b Kallis 11, H Rutherford c Kumble b Kallis 14, Broom run out 7, Cumming c Uthappa b Akhil 20, N McCullum lbw b Kumble 8, Mascarenhas lbw b van der Merwe 3, Butler lbw b Kumble 1, de Boorder b Vinay Kumar 16, McSkimming not out 12, Wagner c Kallis b Vinay Kumar 1.
Extras (b-4, lb-4, w-2) 10
Total (in 17.5 overs)  108
Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-19, 3-32, 4-49, 5-67, 6-70, 7-75, 8-90, 9-106
Bowling: P Kumar 2-0-13-0, Kallis 4-1-18-3, Vinay Kumar 2.5-0-20-2, Kumble 3-0-20-2, van der Merwe 4-0-19-1, Akhil 2-0-10-1.

Source : HindustanTimes

Duminy’s 99 outdoes Bangalore

At this venue in 2008, Brendon McCullum slammed the most famous Twenty20 century to knock the stuffing out of Royal Challengers Bangalore. On another starry South Indian night, against the hosts again, JP Duminy struck the most awesome 99 you will see in this format to take the Cape Cobras to a thrilling last-over victory.

And so a new chapter in the rapidly growing Twenty20 format has begun. After a gala opening ceremony reminiscent of the opening night of the first IPL, the two teams treated a capacity Chinnaswamy Stadium to a superb exhibition of Twenty20 overs. Anil Kumble had no hesitation in batting first on a good batting track and 20 action-packed overs later the Cobras had their task cut out, after Robin Uthappa and Ross Taylor starred in a powerful batting display. But Duminy thumped five sixes and eight fours in as clinical and perfect a display of shotmaking as you could hope to see, and his partnership of 61 with Ryan Canning transformed the game after Bangalore had grabbed three early wickets in defence of 180.

The Cobras were in real strife early on with the bat, as Herschelle Gibbs edged Praveen Kumar behind in the first over, and captain Andrew Puttick followed suit with a leading edge to point. Henry Davids played a couple of handsome strokes but when Virat Kohli took an easy catch at point off R Vinay Kumar, the scoreboard showed 62 for 3.

As he has done at the international stage, Duminy didn’t waste time in finding his range. Kumble continued to vary his pace and fed Duminy a steady diet of googlies; Duminy was beaten on occasions but replied with deft boundaries, the pick being a cut behind short third man for four. There was a moment of drama, too: Taylor dropped a dolly at long-off when Duminy was 23, after which a dead ball was called because the ball hit the cable of the fly camera.

Once he found his range, Duminy was unstoppable. Vinay was scooped for four and Roelof van der Merwe was driven over mid-on for six. After getting to 50 in 30 balls, Duminy stepped up a notch and Canning played his part with 20 from 18 balls.

The game was wide open when the Cobras needed 54 off five overs. That was eased significantly as Kohli’s part-time medium-pace went for 13 in the 16th over, Kumble and van der Merwe were struck for big sixes and Vinay was mowed for boundaries either side of the pitch. Duminy’s final six took him to 99 yet, cruelly, there was to be no century as Rory Kleinveldt finished the deal with two balls remaining.

This seemed a distant possibility after 20 overs in the field, when the Cobras seemed distinctly overawed by the moment and a packed house breathing down their necks, misfielding with alarming regularity and serving up a dozen too many full tosses. Uthappa paved the way with a belligerent but plucky half-century, being dropped on 18 and miscuing more than a few between catchers, and an astonishing assault from Taylor rounded flattened the attack.

Depleted by the injury blow to Charl Langeveldt in the sixth over, the Cobras were sloppy in the field, putting down three catches and missing a run-out. Uthappa was the beneficiary of one sitter and a couple miscues that dropped safely, and flourished in Rahul Dravid’s company after Langeveldt took out Jacques Kallis early. Using his feet regularly to try and get on top of the bowlers, Uthappa pulled off some stinging shots down the ground and over midwicket, each of which the partisan home crowd cheered with gusto.

Dravid, dropped on 16, played some crisp and orthodox shots before he was run out for 28, after which Kohli was stumped for 17. But Bangalore took 61 off their final four overs, 40 of them in boundaries off just eight balls by Taylor, who picked up a 24-ball half-century off the final delivery of the innings, courtesy a top-edged four. Taylor has a penchant for clearing his front leg and heaving across the line, but this evening he was aided by an array of stray slower balls on the pads and rank full tosses.

A target of 181 ultimately proved a saunter with Duminy at his dazzling best. Tonight a new chapter began, one that could dictate the future of club cricket.

Source : Cricinfo

Standard of CL T20 higher than even IPL: Gilly

HYDERABAD: Deccan Chargers, the IPL 2 winners, will not impose any curfew on the controversial Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds during the inaugural October 8-23 Champions League Twenty20 tournament.”No, we don’t have a curfew with the Chargers. Our coach Darren Lehmann has been very good as he allows us to have some fun but when we get onto the field its just cricket,” said the burly all-rounder here today.It may be noted that the Australian cricket team had sent back the troubled Symonds home after he had breached the team rules during the Ashes Series in England earlier this year.Symonds, who played a leading role in the later stage of Chargers triumph in South Africa, said he is very much focused for this tournament. “My focus is very much with the Chargers in this tournament and in the IPL 2010. Just aiming to get out there and do well in the next few weeks,” he said.The all-rounder did admit he missed being part of the Australian national team. “I don’t sit there and regret that I am not playing there. I am happy of my time there and my energies are concentrated to do well for the Chargers.”Meanwhile, skipper Adam Gilchrist said there was no favourites for this tournament.”I think every team has potential match winners. I was asked whether Indians will know teams that aren’t IPL teams and I said you will know the players of almost all the teams and I believe that there three to four teams that can actually play international cricket. Every team has four to five international players and there is going to be no problem when it comes to having interest in this tournament. I think the standard of cricket that you will witness will be higher than even IPL.”Gilichrist said they would not carry burden of expectations. “After the frustrations in IPL 1 we have realised that we have got to enjoy our success. So, we don’t carry any extra pressure at all.”The skipper said VVS Laxman would be part of the scheme of things for Chargers. “We have guys who are playing different types of cricket and VVS has featured prominently in the Lancashire county season. I was in the UK and saw him on television and he played quite beautifully in the Twenty20 games,” he said.Gilchrist clarified that he never said he wasn’t required during the IPL 2. “There is no truth in this. He is a class player. He took the disappointments of not being involved in the last few games extremely well and trained hard and helped the youngsters well. He is trying to learn like the rest of us and try and keep improving. He is very much a required player and has every chance of featuring not only in this tournament but in many more tournaments in the future. Deccan Chargers meet Somerset in their opening match on October 10 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

Source : ExpressBuzz

Royal Challengers will take on Cape Cobras in T20 Champions League opener

MUMBAI: Indian Premier League-II runners-up Royal Challengers Bangalore will face South Africa’s Cape Cobras in the opening match of the $six

million Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament that commences in Bangalore on October 8.

Hyderabad will host the final on October 23 as well as the second semi-final on October 22 while Delhi will host the first semi-final on October 21, as per the draw and match schedule announced on Thursday by the CLT20 Governing Council.

Three Indian teams – IPL-II champions Deccan Chargers Hyderabad, runners-up Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils, the top finishers after the league phase – will take part in the tournament to be held in three centres across the country.

Cricket Australia and South Africa, the other two founder members of the tournament, will have two teams each while an equal number of teams will represent the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The remaining three teams will be from New Zealand, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.

The teams will be divided into four groups of three each in the first phase of the event to spot eight qualifiers for the second league phase.

The three Indian teams have been pooled in different groups in the preliminary phase.

While Deccan Chargers have been drawn in Group A, Royal Challengers and Delhi Daredevils are in Group C and D, respectively.

After the teams play their respective group rivals in round one, to be held from October 8-14, the top two teams will qualify for the second league phase, to be held from October 15-19.

The eight teams to reach the second league phase will be split into two groups of four each.

The top four teams from the second phase will progress to the semi-finals (October 21 and 22) and the winners of the semi-finals will clash in the grand final on October 23.

There will be a total of 23 matches spread over 16 days and matches will be held at 4 pm and 8 pm IST.

CLT20 Chairman Lalit Modi said after the schedule was finalised that it was the ideal tournament to “crown the best-of-the-best in domestic Twenty20 cricket worldwide”.

“It is set to provide domestic cricketers with the ultimate talent showcase, one which I am certain will inspire and motivate future generations of club, state and county cricketers, while accelerating the development of the game globally and the careers of those involved,” Modi said.

Apart from Modi the other members of the CLT20 Governing Council are N Srinivasan, James Sutherland, Niranjan Shah, Dean Kino and Gerald Majola.