Vics power to title
Sat, 23 January 2010
Big-match specialist Victoria has continued its dominance of state cricket by recording a 48-run victory over South Australia in the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash final at Adelaide Oval on Saturday. The Bushrangers posted 7-166 and had one hand on the silverware when the Redbacks slumped to 3-13 in the fourth over of the run chase. South Australia crawled to 9-118 but Kieron Pollard's 44 runs off 33 balls, with some help from Mark Cosgrove (22 off 24), gave the home side a glimmer of hope during the middle overs. Andrew McDonald broke that duo's partnership and finished with 3-21 off four accurate overs, James Pattinson also took three wickets while Dirk Nannes was the early destroyer with 1-8. Victoria, which entered the final without a handful of key players, has now won four of the five Big Bash titles. Overall South Australia had a good tournament and its efforts have seen it qualify for the Champions League. But its form evaporated at the business end of the season, the 14-year wait for another trophy (its last coming in the Sheffield Shield final back in 1995-96) continues. The Redbacks' run chase got off to a disastrous start with a Nannes inswinger trapping Graham Manou leg before wicket on the first ball of the innings. In the next over a pulling Tom Cooper got an inside edge onto leg stump off Pattinson and the score was 2-3. Daniel Harris hit the home side's first boundary in the fourth over but the opener mishit a ball through the leg side and was easily caught by McDonald off Pattinson for just six. Mark Cosgrove and Pollard then went into recovery mode and crept to 3-48 at the midway point of the innings. But just when the run-rate was on the verge of blowing out, Pollard decided to get serious. He struck two leg-side sixes in three balls and 18 runs overall off a Jon Holland over. The resurgence was short lived however with the introduction of McDonald producing an immediate result - Cosgrove played on for 22 off 24, ending a 64-run fourth-wicket partnership, and then Pollard was caught at midwicket by captain David Hussey. Hussey was teetering on the boundary rope and had to throw the ball in the air and take it on the second attempt to complete the dismissal. Cameron Borgas' stay at the crease was brief and when we he was caught behind off Holland the Vics were into the home side's tail. Earlier, Man-of-the-match Aiden Blizzard had led Victoria to its competitive total. Blizzard, included for his first game in this tournament, smoked three sixes in the final two overs to finish with 42 off just 19 balls. Earlier in the innings it was Aaron Finch (48 off 34) who'd kept the scoreboard moving. Aaron O'Brien showed he can carry the spinning duties with Shahid Afridi unavailable and took 3-26 while Mark Cleary, Kieron Pollard and Gary Putland taking a wicket each. The game started with a traditionally eventful opening over by Shaun Tait. He bowled at 154 kilometres per hour, knocked back Finch's middle stump with a no-ball while a couple of leg-side wides were thrown in for good measure. Mark Cleary then followed up with the first maiden in two years of Big Bash and the Redbacks were looking the goods. Later in the innings it was an important 33-run partnership between Andrew McDonald (25 off 20) and Blizzard which saw the visitors recover from 5-109 after 15 overs. Victoria innings Finch c Christian b Pollard 48 (34) Hodge c & b O'Brien 9 (16) Quiney c Cooper b Putland 12 (13) Hussey c Putland b Cleary 15 (13) McDonald c Christian b O'Brien xx Wade c Cleary b O'Brien 1 (2) Blizzard not out 42 (19) Hastings run out (Borgas) 2 (2) Pattinson not out 1 (3) Extras: 12 (1b, 5lb, 2nb, 3w) Total: 166 (7 wickets; 20 overs) FOW: 1-47, 2-70, 3-85, 4-104, 5-109, 6-142, 7-158 Bowling Tait 4 - 0 - 42 - 0 Cleary 4 - 0 - 28 - 1 Christian 2 - 0 - 23 - 0 O'Brien 4 - 0 - 26 - 3 Putland 4 - 0 - 27 - 1 Pollard 2 - 0 - 14 - 1 South Australia innings Manou lbw Nannes 0 (1) Harris c McDonald b Pattinson 6 (8) Cooper b Pattinson 2 (9) Cosgrove b McDonald 22 (24) Pollard c Hussey b McDonald 44 (33) Borgas c Wade b Holland 6 (7) Christian c Quiney b Hastings 4 (6) O'Brien not out 22 (16) Cleary b McDonald 2 (4) Tait c Hodge b Pattinson 6 (11) Putland not out 0 (0) Extras: 4 (2lb, 2w) Total: 118 (9 wickets; 20 overs) FOW: 1-0, 2-3, 3-13, 4-77, 5-78, 6-85, 7-90, 8-98, 9-114 Bowling Nannes 4 - 1 - 8 - 1 Pattinson 4 - 0 - 23 - 3 Hastings 4 - 0 - 25 - 1 Holland 4 - 0 - 35 - 1 McDonald 4 - 0 - 21 - 3
Marcus Wilson at Adelaide Oval, Sportal
