Champions League T20 – Perth Scorchers, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Yorkshire-c867 – Good but not good enough - Statistical Analysis – Opinion - Part 2
Continued from Part 1....
Auckland Aces
Last season’s heartache ensured that Auckland Aces had most of their bases covered. They came to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 two weeks prior to the event, got some of the best training and further seemed geared up for the event when other teams seemed disinterested.
Their progression from the three-team qualifying group was also straightforward. They defeated http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hampshire-c789. They further started the tournament in blazing fashion by outplaying Indian Premier League Title holders, Kolkata Knight Riders. All their wins had a perfect order – they somehow managed to field first, took full advantage of the seam conditions to inflict most of the damage in the first 10 overs, which ultimately allowed them to chase small totals.
Their top-order then did most of the work, with the aggressive nature of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Azhar-Mahmood-c1116, their overseas player, took centre stage to put the final touches to the innings.
When that pattern broke, the team fell apart. Beating the South African domestic champions, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Delhi-c780 Daredevils followed before it all came down to the final game against the Perth Scorchers.
The Aces got the chance to field first and had restricted the opponents to a gettable 140, something that would have hoped for before the start of the game. However, the middle-lower frailties were easily exploited by the Scorers after Guptill and Mahmood had provided them a stable platform. It meant that the team again went out of the competition in bitter fashion, a sentiment shared by their skipper, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/GJ-Hopkins-c1490.
"If we look back in a few years we'd probably say that making the main draw was good," Hopkins said. "But given our position and the belief in the team at the moment, we believed we could make the semis and then the final. We're bitterly disappointed."
Like Yorkshire, Aces mostly came up short against the stronger opponents but an overall assessment implies that they gave a slightly better account of themselves. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754’s Player of the Year, again proved his worth to the side by scoring 142 runs in five matches.
The only player to outnumber the two was Mahmood, who again earned praise for his all-round ability. He was the team’s highest run-getter with 160 runs, which included two match-winning knocks, most notably against the Knight Riders. He further took 10 wickets in the competition, including a five-wicket haul.
Hopkins, like Gale, was keen to point out the positives. "Winning was definitely a highlight," he said. "I enjoyed seeing my mates' successes on the park - things like Azhar Mahmood's innings against Hampshire and the team performance against Kolkata. That was one particularly sweet because they beat us off the last ball in the qualifiers last year so we got our own back this time.”
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