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GUYANA CHRONICLE Monday September 22, 2014
Spinners stretch Knight Riders’ streak to 11
Sunil Narine bamboozles the Lahore Lions batsmen with the splendid figures of three for 9. KOLKATA Knight Riders’ four-wicket victory over Lahore Lions followed the template that has largely been the basis of their 11-game winning run: bowl first to allow
Sunil Narine and the other spinners to smother the opposition, before Robin Uthappa and the rest of the top order click to set up the chase of a lightweight target.
Connell gets call for Twenty20s ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) – Uncapped fast bowler Shamilia Connell has been called up to the West Indies Women squad for their threematch Twenty20 series against New Zealand Women, starting in St Vincent tomorrow. The 22-year-old, who hails from Barbados is the only change to the 13-member squad that swept the Kiwis 4-0 in the One-Day International series which finished in St Kitts on Friday. She replaces opener Natasha McLean, with Merissa Aguilleira again leading the squad. Connell came to the attention of regional selectors during the Women’s Regional OneDay Championship last month in Dominica when she snatched a six-wicket haul to bundle the hosts out for a paltry 52. West Indies Women will play all three Twenty20s at Arnos Vale. SQUAD – Merissa Aguilleira (captain), Stafanie Taylor (vicecaptain), Shemaine
Shamilia Connell - called up for Twenty20s against New Zealand. Campbelle, Shamilia Connell, Britney Cooper, Shanel Daley, Deandra Dottin, Kycia Knight, Hayley Matthews, Anisa Mohammed, Shaquana Quintyne, Tremayne Smartt, Shakera Selman.
(Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 153 for 6 (Gambhir 60, Uthappa 46) beat Lahore Lions 151 for 7 (Shehzad 59, Akmal 40, Narine 3-9) by four wickets). This match was blighted by abysmal fielding. The number of catches put down, stumpings missed and regulation stops messed up was astonishing. Narine, though, turned in another worldclass performance that underlined his reputation as the best in the Twenty20 business, and 19-year-old chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav added to the buzz about him with a stirring effort to stifle Lions. Lions’ best phase of
the game was the opening Powerplay, when Ahmed Shehzad struck some big hits down the ground to push the score to 47 for 0 - this, despite Narine bowling a maiden in the fifth over. A stunning direct hit from Andre Russell broke the opening stand in the seventh over, by when the wicketkeeper Manvinder Bisla had already mucked up two straightforward stumpings. The Knight Riders’ spinners took charge in the middle overs, with Kuldeep showing solid control for a wrist-spinner, getting his stock ball to turn plenty and using the wrong ‘un to confuse the batsmen. Mohammad Hafeez spent
much of his short innings trying to heave the ball to midwicket before he became Kuldeep’s first victim, holing out for 9. When Shehzad found Uthappa at long-off in the 13th over to finish on a chancy 59, Lions’ top-heavy batting was in trouble, especially with three Narine overs to come. The trepidation of the lesser lights in the batting lineup was obvious when they faced Narine: Saad Nasim missed his first ball and edged his second to short cover, Umar Siddiq lasted one more before being done in by the quicker one, and Asif Raza was bowled first ball. Narine nearly had a hat-
trick, but Wahab Riaz had his boot back in the crease before Bisla could break the stumps. Umar Akmal was still there, though, and he clobbered Piyush Chawla and Pat Cummins to lift Lions past 150. Gautam Gambhir and Uthappa, aided by some comically inept fielding, put on a century stand to set Knight Riders on course for victory. They were coasting for a large part of the chase before a slew of wickets towards the end briefly made things tight, only for Suryakumar Yadav to finish it off with a five-ball 14. (ESPN Cricinfo)
Blizzard onslaught stuns Cape Cobras THE romance of T20 cricket is that one ball can change the game. Cobras were reminded of it in gruesome fashion in the 18th over. (Scores: Hobart Hurricanes 186 for 4 (Blizzard 78*, Dunk 54; Engelbrecht 3-20) beat Cape Cobras 184 for 6 (Levi 42, Philander 32*) by six wicket)s Their lead bowler Vernon Philander had routed Hobart Hurricanes’ final hope when he had Aiden Blizzard caught on the longon boundary, and it did not augur well for the chase that a new batsman had to come in with an equation of 38 off 17 balls. Blizzard was walking off the field when he was asked to wait; the umpires wanted to doublecheck the legality of the ball. The replay gutted Cobras - Philander had overstepped. Blizzard had reached his fifty off the previous delivery, and he feasted on the free-hit - that monstrous six over square leg was part of a 24-run over. A match that had slowly been tipping into the Cobras’ hands was wrested away and Hurricanes hurtled to victory with one over to spare. Philander was completely thrown. He dished out length balls and worse full tosses to be carted for two fours and two sixes in seven deliveries. Philander had caused confusion among the Hurricanes bowlers when Cobras batted, and had been a vital cog in a seventhwicket partnership that raised 52 runs in four overs
and inflated the target to 185. Memories of his 32 off 14 evaporated, however, as Blizzard reaped his luck to take 26 runs off eight balls to finish unbeaten on 78 off 48. Both teams were pleased with the pitch at the start of the game. Hurricanes captain Tim Paine said it looked “terrific”; his Cobras counterpart Justin Ontong foresaw some turn and loaded his side with an extra spinner. Dane Piedt’s impact was minimal though as he injured his right arm but the other change, Sybrand Engelbrecht, thrived. The slower he bowled, the more difficult it got for Hurricanes. By the end of Engelbrecht’s spell - 4-0-203 - the equation was 60 off 30 balls. Charl Langeveldt, who reversed his retirement for this tournament, compounded that with a terrific 17th over that yielded only six runs - one of which was a tight wide call. Blizzard was saddled with a required rate that was inching to 15. He had used pure power to fuel his innings and the ploy hadn’t been as effective when the bowlers opted to change their pace. His tally against spin was 29 off 27. But the situation empowered him to continue and Cobras helped him by feeding him pace and worse, at the exact length a batsman would like. His innings overshadowed another half-century at the top of the order. Ben Dunk had accumulated 41 of the 51-run opening stand. At that stage, the chase looked perfectly on course. Cobras’ 62 runs in their Powerplay was the best
Aiden Blizzard hammers an unbeaten 78 off 48 to script an unlikely victory for Hobart Hurricanes over Cape Cobras in the CLT20. in this CLT20. Hurricanes missed that by only three runs. Cobras edged ahead during a tight middle-overs period in the Hurricanes’ innings - only 47 runs came between the ninth and the 15th and there were three wickets as well. But in the end they were disconsolate and in disbelief. They were still without points despite a blitz from Richard Levi, who offset the early dismissal of Hashim Amla with a typically muscular 42 off 30. The Hurricanes bowlers took their time recognising the impact of changing their pace. They had tested the
pitch with Xavier Doherty in the third over. In the fifth, he beat Levi’s outside edge but the batsman hit back with two successive fours. Eventually they caught on with Ben Laughlin showing off different variations of his slower ball to pick up 2 for 31. Levi’s dismissal in the 10th over helped, but just as the innings seemed to be meandering, Robin Peterson’s unorthodoxy and Philander peppering the straight boundary revived them. However, Philander’s luck ran out when it was time to bowl. (ESPN Cricinfo)