NSW FIXED ODDS

Winner
Odds updated at 09:42:53
Pays on Official Result 01:30 Fri 23 Oct 2009
Sportsbet No. Selection (default) Price Amount Total
21671 Deccan 6.00 $
21672 Delhi 6.50 $
21673 Victoria 7.00 $
21674 New South Wales 7.00 $
21675 Cape Cobras 9.00 $
21676 Eagles 15.00 $
21677 Somerset 13.00 $
21678 Sussex 13.00 $
21679 Otago 13.00 $
21680 Trinidad and Tobago 15.00 $
21681 Wayamba 9.00 $
21682 Bangalore 9.00 $

GROUP A
Deccan Chargers (India)
Shoaib Ahmed, Azhar Bilakhia, Fidel Edwards, Adam Gilchrist (c), Ryan Harris, VVS Laxman, Pragyan Ojha, Venugopal Rao, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Harmeet Singh, Scott Styris, Tirumalasetti Suman, Andrew Symonds, Chaminda Vaas

Trinidad and Tobago (West Indies)
Samuel Badree, Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Rayad Emrit, Daren Ganga (c) ,Sherwin Ganga, Dave Mohammed, Sunil Narine, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, William Perkins, Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Navin Stewart

Somerset CCC (England)
Omari Banks, Jos Buttler, Zander de Bruyn, Wes Durston, James Hildreth, Craig Kieswetter, Justin Langer (c), Ben Phillips, Arul Suppiah, Alfonso Thomas, Peter Trego, Marcus Trescothick, Max Waller, Charl Willoughby

GROUP B
Diamond Eagles (South Africa)
Ryan Bailey, Jandre Coetzee, Cornelius de Villiers, Boeta Dippenaar(c), Dillon du Preez, Dean Elgar, Reeza Hendricks, Alan Kruger, Adrian McLaren, Ryan McLaren, Victor Mpitsang, Rilee Rossouw, Thandi Tshabalala, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Morne van Wyk

New South Wales Blues (Australia)
Aaron Bird, Doug Bollinger, Stuart Clark, Nathan Hauritz, Moises Henriques, Phillip Hughes, Simon Katich(c), Simon Keen, Brett Lee, Steve O'Keefe, Ben Rohrer, Daniel Smith, Steven Smith, Dominic Thornely, David Warner

Sussex Sharks (England)
Yasir Arafat, William Beer, Ben Brown, Piyush Chawla, Joe Gatting, Rory Hamilton-Brown, Andrew Hodd, Ed Joyce, Chad Keegan, James Kirtley, Robin Martin-Jenkins, Christopher Nash, Dwayne Smith, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy(c)

GROUP C
Cape Cobras (South Africa) Derek Brand, Ryan Canning, Henry Davids, Jean-Paul Duminy, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Herschelle Gibbs, Claude Henderson, Rory Kleinveldt, Charl Langeveldt, Justin Ontong, Vernon Philander, Francois Plaatjies, Andrew Puttick(c) , Stiaan van Zyl, Monde Zondeki

Otago Volts (New Zealand)
Nick Beard, Neil Broom, Ian Butler, Craig Cumming(c), Derek de Boorder, Mathew Harvie, AD Mascarenhas, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, James McMillan, Warren McSkimming, Aaron Redmond, Hamish Rutherford, Greg Todd, Neil Wagner

Royal Challengers (India)
Balachandra Akhil, Rajesh Bishnoi, Mark Boucher, Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Anil Kumble(c) , Manish Pandey, Dale Steyn, Ross Taylor, Robin Uthappa, Roelof van der Merwe

GROUP D
Dehli Daredevils (India)
Rajat Bhatia, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Gautam Gambhir(c) , Dinesh Karthik, Mithun Manhas, Glenn McGrath,Amit Mishra, Dirk Nannes, Ashish Nehra , Aavishkar Salvi, Pradeep Sangwan, Virender Sehwag, Owais Shah, Manoj Tiwary , Daniel Vettori

Victoria (Australia)
Aiden Blizzard, Aaron Finch, Shane Harwood, John Hastings, Brad Hodge, Jon Holland, David Hussey, Andrew McDonald, Bryce McGain, Clinton McKay, James Pattinson , Robert Quiney, Peter Siddle, Matthew Wade, Cameron White(c)

Wayamba Elevens (Sri Lanka)
Ishara Amerasingha, Sameera de Zoysa, Rangana Herath, Mahela Jayawardene, Shalika Karunanayake, Jeevantha Kulatunga, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Farveez Maharoof, Ajantha Mendis, Jehan Mubarak (c), Thissara Perera, Isuru Udana, Mahela Udawatte, Michael Vandort, Chanaka Welegedara

October 9, 2009

New South Wales 144 for 6 (Katich 53) beat Eagles 91 for 9 (Ryan McLaren 40, Clark 3-12) by 53 runs

After a smorgasbord of hitting in Bangalore, the ball dominated proceedings in the first game of a Friday double-header in Delhi. Simon Katich followed his decision to bat with some sparkling strokeplay and though Eagles hit back in the last seven overs a total of 144 proved more than enough. Arguably the strongest bowling attack in the tournament, spearheaded by Brett Lee and backed up by the accurate Stuart Clark, blitzed the Eagles who limped to 91 - the lowest Twenty20 score at the Feroz Shah Kotla - thanks largely to Ryan McLaren's 40.

Katich took one look at "a typical wicket without a blade of grass" and decided to bat, and found himself in early after Philip Hughes missed an ugly heave. Katich relied on timing instead of force, taking three fours off Dillon du Preez: not one shot was crude, yet each raced away to the boundary after being struck with superb wristwork and placement. Ryan McLaren was welcomed with a drive through extra cover and an effortless six off Katich's pads; again, these shots were unique for their placement rather than ferocity.

It was an approach David Warner struggled to adopt, swinging and missing regularly. He managed three fours in one over off Shadley van Schalkwyk in which he peppered the long-on, deep cover and midwicket boundaries, but his timing was nowhere as fluent as Katich's. Thandi Tshabalala's offspin and Ryan Bailey's slow-medium deliveries slowed the pace and accounted for Warner's wicket, a result of his frustration.

From here the Eagles fielded with vigour and took all but one of the chances that came their way, never letting their tempo slip. A six off Tshabalala took Katich past 50 in 37 balls but he fell soon after Warner, chipping van Schalkwyk to long-off. Bailey continued to tie down the batsmen, allowing just ten runs in his four overs without conceding a boundary. Tshabalala's figures were spoiled by two sixes from Moises Henriques, who looked capable of taking the score past 150 but fell in the 18th over to a good catch at backward point. NSW proceeded to lose two wickets in two balls and finished with 144.

The Eagles' task was made all the more difficult when Brett Lee got hold of the new ball. Finding a little bit of swing, and good pace and accuracy, he got Rilee Roussow with a full ball in front of leg stump in the opening over. Adrian McLaren responded with a couple of brusque boundaries off Doug Bollinger but was run out when Katich threw down the stumps from mid-on and wickets kept falling to peg the Eagles' ambitions back. Morne van Wyk picked out short midwicket with a cross-batted shot to Stuart Clark's first ball, Boeta Dippenaar chipped to mid-off, Dean Elgar danced down and was stumped off Nathan Hauritz, and when Katich ran out Bailey, the Eagles had slumped to 36 for 6.

The Eagles weren't finished just yet. Ryan McLaren took up the cudgels with a massive six off Steve Smith and a delicate paddle for four off Lee, but also had to farm the strike to shield the tail - and that's not exactly easy in Twenty20 cricket. Clark never let the foot off the gas and capped an excellent evening with 3 for 12 from four overs, featuring masterful changes of pace and length, so key to this format.

Katich followed a fine effort with the bat by effecting two direct hits and taking a catch, as NSW showed why they are one of the favourites. Unlike their fellow South African representatives Cape Cobras, the Eagles pulled well below their weight against a formidable attack and slick fielding.

October 9, 2009

Victoria 100 for 3 (Quiney 40) beat Delhi Daredevils 98 for 8 (Manhas 25, McKay 3-17) by seven wickets

A similar story to yesterday's panned out at the Feroz Shah Kotla, with another Indian team failing to capitalise on home conditions and crowd support. Delhi Daredevils - under new captain Gautam Gambhir - were comprehensively beaten by Victoria, for whom Clint McKay led a devastating seam attack, in the opening match of Group D.

The win capped off a remarkable day for the Australian participants, after New South Wales pummelled the Eagles a few hours earlier at the same venue.

Delhi had been left to look like outsiders against an attack that was relentless on a track with consistently uneven bounce, and which made run-scoring quite problematic. Gambhir had not bargained for such a dismal showing after choosing to bat and Delhi just managed to scrape past the second-lowest Twenty20 score at this venue, recorded by the Eagles earlier.

The signs that a devil might just be in the pitch were first seen in the third over. The ball from Shane Harwood kept low, Gambhir was slow in getting his bat down in time and his off stump went cartwheeling.

Virender Sehwag attempted to stamp his authority at home by smashing boundaries off successive Harwood deliveries, but was superbly caught and bowled by McKay in his first over off a mistimed shot on the leg side. McKay followed it up by getting Owais Shah caught behind for a duck.

The Victorian fielders were always alert, keeping the batsmen on their toes. A moment of indecision from Tillakaratne Dilshan had Dinesh Karthik scrambling for safety at the bowler's end. Cameron White swooped in from cover and threw it back to Andrew McDonald, who took the bails off in a flash.

The situation called for Dilshan to play the anchor role and he was relatively sedate till the 16th over, when McKay - who seemed to be enjoying the conditions - lured him out and removed his off stump. Mithun Manhas tried to make the most of his run-out reprieve, but a suspected hamstring injury did not augur well for Delhi and Harwood broke through his defences to send him back for 25. McDonald capped off a superb display by castling Bhatia and Sangwan in the final over. However, there was more disappointment in store for the partisan crowd.

If there were any doubts about the pitch during and after Delhi's innings, Rob Quiney settled them in style. Dirk Nannes, bowling to his state team-mates, was handed no favours, as Quiney belted the ball past him to the mid-on boundary. Nannes' new-ball partner Ashish Nehra fared no better and was carted for a four and a six in his third over. With 32 on the board in the fifth over, Delhi were in a state of panic and bewilderment.

The introduction of legspinner Amit Mishra did not prove fruitful immediately, with Quiney attacking him from the start. Mishra was dispatched for six over long-on in his very first over, and the second and third deliveries of his next over disappeared for ten runs. Mishra persisted with flight and bowled Quiney next ball, the batsman failing to connect while trying to work to the leg side.

Brad Hodge, who had been watching the pyrotechnics from the other end, was cleaned up by Dilshan two balls later, but with Victoria racing to 55 for 2 in the ninth over, Delhi needed a pre-Diwali miracle. Dilshan and Mishra, bowling in tandem, managed to stifle the runs but Victoria had been delivered a productive start, and could afford to sit back.

Even Rajat Bhatia's dismissal of David Hussey with a slower one did little to instill confidence in Gambhir to try out Pradeep Sangwan's left-arm seam. It didn't make much difference, for Aiden Blizzard ended the innings on a high, smashing Bhatia for a six over long-on.

October 11, 2009

New South Wales 130 for 2 (Hughes 62*, Henriques 51*) beat Sussex 95 for 8 (Henriques 3-23) by 35 runs

New South Wales, the champions of Australia's Big Bash, were the first team from Group B to secure passage, with points carried forward, to the second round of the Champions League. They did so by showing tremendous adaptability in both their matches on slow Delhi pitches with low bounce. Phillip Hughes and Moises Henriques quickly assessed what a competitive total would be on such a surface - only 130 was needed today - and their bowlers, fast and spin alike, bowled a dangerous stump-to-stump line, snuffing out Sussex's chase with early wickets and extremely few Powerplay runs.

The game was won for NSW during the 90-run partnership between Hughes and Henriques. Hughes played the patient innings while Henriques used the long handle to telling effect. Both batsmen reached half-centuries but, despite being extremely well set, were unable to provide the slog-over thrust needed to take the total towards 150. That they were unable to do so was more an indictment of how difficult batting was on this surface than a criticism of their power-hitting skills.

Just how tough Sussex's chase would be was evident in Brett Lee's opening over of the chase. Bowling fast and straight, Lee pitched one on a length: the ball stayed low, ripped through Ed Joyce's defence, and crashed into the middle of off stump. The total of 130 had suddenly grown in stature.

NSW's innings was in strife at 40 for 2 and they had reached only 50 at the half-way stage when the acceleration came. Hughes hit the first six in the 11th over, muscling Piyush Chawla with a flat bat over long off, and Henriques, who was dropped at cover a few balls later, struck the second, slog-sweeping over deep midwicket. NSW took 17 runs off the 11th over and appeared to be back on track. Henriques had struck three sixes during his cameo against the Eagles and began to do a repeat, launching Rory Hamilton-Brown over extra cover and clearing the long-on boundary off James Kirtley.

The batsmen scored 45 runs between overs 10 and 15 and, with eight wickets in hand, a score of 150 was probable. There were no boundaries in the last four overs, though, the most eventful delivery being the beamer from Dwayne Smith that crashed into the wicketkeeper's helmet, and NSW had to settle for less.

It isn't often that a team scores merely 130 in a Twenty20 match despite having eight wickets in the bank but it was that sort of a pitch. It got lower and slower as the day wore on; the batsmen struggled to find timing and had to stay vigilant to keep out the occasional shooter. Robin Martin-Jenkins' first delivery of the match set the tone as it thudded into the bottom of David Warner's bat. The Sussex bowlers rarely wavered from the straight-and-narrow line, hoping they would hit if the batsmen misjudged the pace and bounce. It was a method NSW's attack would implement with success.

After Brett Lee's searing opening spell of 2-1-3-1, which included Joyce's wicket, Doug Bollinger and Henriques kept the batsmen quiet. Sussex had scored only 26 off the Powerplay and, so when Simon Katich gave the ball to Steven Smith as soon as the fielding restrictions were lifted, Rory Hamilton-Brown charged the young legspinner immediately. He advanced and swung across the line but was beaten by flight and turn, leaving Daniel Smith with an easy stumping.

The chase was floundering at 26 for 2 and Dwayne Smith adopted a similar approach against Steven Smith. He swiped repeatedly across the line and was beaten. He eventually connected and sent the ball rapidly to the long-on boundary but Sussex needed him to contribute substantially. However, on a pitch that needed batsmen to remain watchful and balanced, Dwayne Smith moved towards leg to manufacture room to guide Bollinger to third man. He missed and was bowled. Sussex's bad situation grew worse when Henriques struck with successive deliveries to reduce them to 64 for 5 and it became dire when two more fell with the score on 68.

Henriques ended an excellent match by dismissing Andy Hodd and finished with figures of 3 for 23 to go with his match-winning half-century.

October 16, 2009

Trinidad & Tobago 171 for 6 (Pollard 54, Ramdin 23) New South Wales 170 for 4 ( Hughes 83, Warner 63) by four wickets

It's said that you can win or lose a Twenty20 game in a blink and Kieron Pollard, batting like a man possessed, proved the adage right by engineering a stunning win against New South Wales.


'It's not over until it's over' is another of those cricketing clichés that is not always held to account but tonight was the night for clichés - in a Hyderabad minute, everything changed.

NSW unleashed their two dynamites, David Warner and Phillip Hughes, who propelled them to 170, which seemed more than enough at one stage but Pollard, with a violent 18-ball 54, crafted a remarkable comeback in Twenty20 history.


The chase never seemed to be going anywhere after the top order had combusted and when Darren Bravo was run out, the equation read: 80 from 42 balls. Game over, surely? But everything changed in stunning fashion as first Denesh Ramdin and then Pollard played out of their skins to turn the game on its head.

It all began in the 14th over, bowled by Stuart Clark. Ramdin pinged the midwicket boundary twice before he lifted the spinner Steven Smith in the next over for a boundary over extra-cover and a slog-swept six over midwicket. However, Ramdin fell in the next over and once again, NSW were the favourites or so one thought.

If it started in the 14th over, the game-breaker was the 17th over in which Pollard simply went berserk against the medium-pace of Moises Henriques and looted 27 runs. The second ball disappeared to long-off, the third was sliced over point, the fourth, a full toss, was collected by a spectator beyond midwicket boundary, the next, another nervy full toss, was picked up from behind deep square-leg boundary, and the last delivery flew to third man. Game almost over.

If there was any doubt, it vanished when Simon Katich handed Henriques the responsibility of bowling the 19th over and Pollard finished off the chase with a couple of bludgeoned sixes.

NSW had done everything that they could till Pollard's whirlwind innings,. The bowling was disciplined and the batting was led from the front by Warner and Hughes. With only a few deliveries into the contest it was clear that pace on the ball was going to be fodder for both batsmen, especially when T&T didn't possess anyone with real speed. Warner and Hughes stayed adjacent to the line and threaded the off-side with their punches, cuts, and muscled drives.

T&T had to switch to plan B and Daren Ganga quickly brought on the spinners and medium-pacers with the ability to take pace off the ball. It worked initially as NSW slowed down from 50 in six overs to 77 in 11. The two spinners in operation at that period were the chinaman bowler Dave Mohammed and the accurate offspinner Sherwin Ganga, who both took the ball away from the left-handed openers. Both batsmen managed to prevent the adrenalin rush from kicking in and played out this period intelligently with dabbed singles and twos.


They knew Ganga had to change his bowlers at some point and the opportunity to break free came in the 12 th over against the legspinner Samuel Badree. Unlike Sherwin Ganga and Mohammed, Badree was guilty of overpitching his flighted deliveries and Warner took full toll: Two disappeared over long-on and long-off and as Badree, in trying to adjust his length, slipped in long-hops, Warner crashed them to square-leg and swung the last one over midwicket. Twenty-four runs were looted in that over and the run-rate had shot up again.

Ganga did the obvious by taking out Badree and bringing back his two best spinners. Mohammed picked up Warner's wicket and teased Hughes with his variations but Hughes knew he had to just wait for the seamers to return. And when they did, he hit them around the ground. Ravi Rampaul, who had given away three boundaries in the first over of the innings, was carted to the point and straight boundaries by Warner while Henriques lofted Lendl Simmons to long-on and to midwicket boundary.

Hughes was as unconventional as ever; those feet never seem to get in line but his bat does as he slashes and carves it around like a sword. There wasn't a single "beautiful" shot in the traditional sense of the word but then there is nothing traditional about Hughes' batting. However, there was, as ever, quite bit of skill in his violence. A shot that stood out from the general massacre that he was attempting to unleash was as deft and skilful as it gets: Rampaul almost slipped in a yorker on the middle stump in the 19th over, perhaps a touch short of the blockhole. Hughes had opened his stance, waiting to bludgeon it, but on seeing the length, he crouched back, opened the bat-face and guided it deliberately to left of backward point and to the boundary.

Hughes would have thought he had done enough to be the hero for the day but Pollard had decided to seize the day.