Victoria Bushrangers earn well-chased win over Central Stags
The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Victoria-c859 Bushrangers beat Central Stags in a close Champions League T20 encounter at Centurion on Wednesday. The Bushrangers won by seven wickets but with only three balls to spare.
The two teams, Victoria and Central Stags had gone into the game knowing that another loss here after their respective first match losses would almost surely end their chances in the tournament.
The Stags captain Jamie How won the toss and decided to bat first on a track which was said to be better for batsmen to begin with. The move backfired as the side lost two wickets in quick succession. Peter
Siddle, who was making a comeback into the side after being dropped for the previous one, picked up both the wickets in the first over he bowled and the side were 2/2.
Matthew Sinclair came to the crease after that and joined his captain How. The pair looked to have taken some kind of control as they brought the score to 30/2 before the inconsistent Sinclair was sent back
by John Hastings – and the Kiwi team looked like in big trouble.
Gary Worker joined his captain and the pair’s first objective was to reign in the fall of wickets before trying to go for the shots. The partnership went well for a while as the pair settled down and then
took on the Victorian spinners to the cleaners. The pair added 53 for the fourth wicket, off 48 balls before http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bryce-McGain-c1202 finally had his man Worker dismissed.
With 39 balls to go, it looked like the side would not be able to get to more than 135-140, but it was here that How took control and took the bowling on. One over from Hastings cost him 28 runs, which was
the best ever in this edition of the tournament and the Kiwi side was able to get to 165/5 in the 20 overs. How carried his bat, and remained unbeaten for 77.
The Bushrangers started with a 40-run first wicket partnership, before http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Doug-Bracewell-c1394 to the
wicket-keeper to reduce the side to 100/3 in 13.3.
This meant that the side needed 66 runs to win the game, but with only 39 deliveries in hand. What was in their favour was the presence of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Aaron-Finch-c881. Finch had opened the innings, worked out how the track
was behaving and understood how much would have been a good score for the last three overs.
48 runs were needed off the last four, when Finch took over and slammed those runs with consummate ease to lead the side to a win. He scored an unbeaten 93 to win the man of the match award.
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