Saturday’s games in the Twenty20 Champions League see the Cape Cobras take on Otago whilst the Deccan Chargers are in action against Somerset. Both games take place in Hyderabad and we take a look at both the matches preview.
Cape Cobras v Otaga Volts:
The Cape Cobra made their arrival loud and clear in the inaugural match of the Champions League T20 against the Royal Challenger Bangalore. The Cape Cobras were magnificent in beating the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the opening game of the tournament on Thursday and they now get an early opportunity to follow up against Otago.
JP Duminy (99 off 52 balls) rightly stole the headlines as the Cobras pulled off a surprise win when successfully chasing down the 180 posted by RCB. It was a terrific performance against the odds. The only concern was an injury to Charl Langeveldt who bowled his first 3 overs for just 12 runs, taking 1 wicket before injuring his shoulder along with a host of dropped catches in the field which on another day, will prove more costly.
The Otago Volts from New Zealand will; however, play their first game of the League on Saturday against the Cobras. The Volts won their first trophy in 2008 and are looking for support and strength from wicket-keeper batsman McCullum and Dimitri Mascarenhas.
The Volts will have to play their hearts out in the Champions League and against Cobras who are on the ninth cloud after their win against challengers will come charging and the Volts need to brace up with more power to escape the fangs of the Cobras. Otago will be expected much from Brendon McCullum who enjoyed a terrific first edition of the IPL when it was held in India. Redmond, Butler and Broom are other Black Caps stars in the squad.
The Cobras need to keep their feet on the ground after their superb opening win. Getting McCullum early will be the key and another master class from Duminy would be most welcome. It really was a remarkable knock. The case for a Cobras win would be even stronger if Langeveldt is fit to resume but at the time of writing, there must be some doubt concerning his participation and it may just be Otago have a shout on the handicap.
Watch out for:
Herschelle Gibbs will be back at his IPL team Deccan’s home ground. He will be looking to make amends for his first-ball duck against Bangalore, especially against a bowling attack which looks to be lacking in firepower.
Hamish Rutherford, son of former New Zealand captain Ken, is not too well known outside his country, but was in devastating form in the State Twenty20, clobbering 220 runs at a strike-rate of 167.93. That’s among the best strike-rates around over the past year.
Deccan Chargers v Somerset:
The Deccan Chargers will take on Somerset in the Airtel T20 Champions League Group A match scheduled at 14:30 GMT.
Adam Gilchrist and his Deccan Chargers won the IPL earlier this year and they will be looking to get off to a Champions League flyer on their home ground against Somerset. Captain Gilchrist had made a lot of difference to the Deccan Chargers and his brilliant captaincy gave the team their first IPL title.
The team is braced with the batting strengths of Captain Adam Gilchrist, VVS Laxman, all-rounder Scot Styris, bowler R P Singh and Pragyan Ojha.
Gilchrist has much the same squad to select from in this tournament with Andrew Symonds, Scott Styris, RP Singh, Chaminda Vaas, Fidel Edwards and Rohit Sharma amongst the big names.
The Somerset team is the cricket club from England and the match against Deccan Chargers will be their first game in the League and so for the Deccan Chargers.
Justin Langer’s Somerset squad includes Marcus Trescothick who has been in excellent form in England this season as well as Charl Willoughby, Zander de Bruyn, Alfonso Thomas, and Ben Phillips, these will be the players to watch for in the Somerset.
Deccan Chargers are no doubt a stronger side and have an edge to win the game on Saturday but T20 format is the most exciting and unpredictable format of cricket and things could change at any point of the game and Somerset will be praying that it should be their day.
Watch out for:
Andrew Symonds will be playing his first high-level cricket after being sent home just before the start of the World Twenty20 in June. A lethal hitter of the ball, an agile fielder, he can also bowl either spin or seam-up; his versatility is a major asset to Deccan, the reason why they splashed out US$1.35 million a year for his services.
Marcus Trescothick has been sweeping the end-of-season awards in England after a stunning year in which he piled on 2,934 runs across all competitions. This will be his first overseas assignment since pulling out of Somerset’s pre-season to Dubai in 2008 due to the stress-related illness which forced him out of tours to India in 2005 and the Ashes in 2006-07.
Author: Mona Gupta, New Delhi.
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