September 15, Centurion: Chasing 166 for a win, The Victorian Bushrangers showed grit and determination to eventually overcome the Central Stags by 7 wickets. The Stags on the other hand seemed to be suffering from the same fielding flu that struck the Mumbai Indians yesterday. Finch was the star and along with Andrew McDonald made sure he always kept the scoreboard ticking. But with 12 runs required off the last over, Finch was a picture of confidence as he finished it off with a huge six helping the Bushrangers take home two vital points.
Earlier, the Stags’ decision to bat first seemed to have backfired after they were off to a disastrous start. Peter Ingram was out off the first ball and Tim Weston followed suit pretty soon as Peter Siddle grabbed his second wicket of the over. A dream start for the Bushrangers and it kept on getting better. The Aussies were choking the runs and Mathew Sinclair finally gave in as John Hastings notched his first wicket of the match.
The constant fall of wickets was suffocating the run flow and a period of austerity ensued as the Stags began their rebuilding process. Progress was slow but it was progress nonetheless as captain and opener Jamie How along with George Worker (29) made slow steps to recovery. And just when it looked like the Bushrangers were going to have a smallish total to chase, How changed gears quite drastically to launch a fierce attack. First Siddle and then Hastings had to bear the brunt of How’s pent up aggression. The Stags skipper reached his peak hitting spree in the 18th over when he smacked 28 runs off Hastings to change the whole complexion of the innings. And along with some lusty hitting from Brendon Diamanti (19) and Kieran Noema-Barnett (13*) the Stags successfully managed to set a competitive total of 165/5 thanks mainly to How’s persistent 77*.
Brief Scores- Victorian Bushrangers 166 for 3 (Aaron Finch 90, Andrew McDonald 18, Seth Rance 1-30) beat
Central Stags 165 for 5 (Jamie How 77, George Worker 29, Peter Siddle 2-30) by 7 wickets.
Man-of-the-match – Aaron Finch for his scintillating innings of 93 off 60 balls.
No comments:
Post a Comment