NSW book their place in Big Bash Twenty20 final
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-South-Wales-c823 (NSW) cruised into the final of the Big Bash Twenty20 tournament after they overcame Tasmania by nine wickets in a rain-affected match at Hobart.
The match was reduced to 17 overs per side due to rain, and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/George-Bailey-c1480 won the toss and elected to bat first. The team only managed to score 103 runs and were all-out in 17 overs.
NSW chased down the total in just 12.5 overs courtesy a thunderous knock from David Warner. Tasmania lost wickets at regular intervals and that halted the run-rate of the innings. The team lost their first four wickets for just 25 runs.
There was some resistance from George Bailey and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Travis-Birt-c2707 as the pair put together a 34-run partnership for the fifth wicket. However, their resistance didn’t last long as both got out after getting starts. Bailey got out after scoring 18 runs off 15
balls and Birt was out after a promising innings of 22 from 21 balls.
The tail-enders tried to push the total as far as they could but that was not enough for the team. Jason Krejza scored 11 runs whereas Rana Naved-ul-Hasan scored 12 runs before getting out.
The NSW bowlers were in devastating form as they picked up wickets regularly for their team and didn’t give away too many runs. Patrick Cummins took full advantage of the conditions and grabbed four wickets for just 16 runs in his spell of four overs. He
got good support from the other bowlers and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Stuart-Clark-c2591 was as accurate as ever. He took one wicket for just 17 runs in four overs.
The only problem for the NSW team was that their star batsman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Usman-Khawaja-c2729 was not available to open the innings with David Warner. Khawaja sustained a hamstring injury during the first half of the match. However, this didn’t affect Warner’s batting as
the destructive opener was in full flow. Warner smashed the ball to all parts of the park and scored an unbeaten 70 off just 49 balls in his innings.
The flamboyant opener struck eight 4s and three huge sixes in his blistering knock. The only wicket to fall was that of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Daniel-Smith-c1313, who was promoted at the top of the order with Warner.
Smith scored 16 runs off 12 balls and was involved in a fifty-run opening partnership with Warner. The first-drop, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Phil-Jaques-c2182 remained unbeaten on 17 off 18 balls. The lone wicket-taker for Tasmania was the tall off-spinner, Krejza.
Although Warner played a splendid innings, the player-of-the-match was awarded to Cummins for his excellent figures in the match. The victory helped NSW qualify for the Champions League.
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