Previewing the Champions League T20: South Australia
The second edition of the Champions League T20 will begin from 10 September this year and 10 cricket clubs from around the world will be the part of the tournament. South Australia belongs to the Group B in the series.
How they got there:
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Australia-c844 was one of the surprise packages of the KFC T20 Big Bash tournament in Australia. This tournament is used as a qualifier for the Champions League T20 apart from being the only domestic T20 tournament that there is in Australia. What was surprising was that a team that had finished sixth, fifth and fourth (twice) in the previous editions of this tournament, managed to qualify for the Champions League T20 this year.
South Australia was led by Gaham Manou in the KFC Big Bash T20, but what was interesting to note was that they had gone into the tournament with two foreign players – only one of the two sides to do so.
Kieron Pollard and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-South-Wales-c823 to end the league standings at eight points off their five games – one clear of three of the remaining teams.
This put them directly into the final of the KFC Big Bash T20, gave them the advantage of hosting the final, and most importantly made them the first team to qualify for the Champions League from Australia.
In the end, they lost to Victoria in the final, but that hardly mattered, because, by then, they had already booked their tickets for the Champions League T20.
Strengths:
Their foreign players, Pollard and Afridi are two of the biggest hitters of the cricket ball, but most importantly can bowl well as well in this format of the game. One gets the sense that while Afridi may not feature in the tournament due to his prior international engagements, Pollard’s Trinidad and Toabago’s early ouster from the Caribbean T20 means that he should play for South Australia. The middle and late middle-order should be their biggest strength.
Weaknesses:
It will be the lack of experience at the big stage for the South Australian players that will cause issues. For the best part of the previous few editions of the KFC Big Bash T20, they have been under-performers, and for now to be playing at the highest level could take time adjusting to. This was evident in the final of the KFC Big Bash as well, when they were completely overawed by Victoria.
Players to watch out for:
Mark Cosgrove makes as much news for the runs off his bat as he does for his girth, and he will be one of the important South Australian players. Pollard is the other obviously exciting cricketer that fans will be looking at.
South Australia’s fixtures:
South Australia begin their campaign against the Lions on 12 September, and follow it up with the games against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mumbai-c820, Bangalore and Guyana on 14, 17 and 21 of the same month.
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