South African T20 team Nashua Dolphins announced their 15-member squad for the 2008 Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament. Titans are runners-up in the domestic Twenty20 tournament and the winners of the Standard Bank Pro20 Series. ICC Test Player of the Year 2008 Dale Steyn and All-rounder Morne Morkel along with AB De Villiers are crucial players for Titans in the Champions League. Titans will play in the Champions League without their all-rounder Albie Morkel as he opted for Chennai Super Kings. This is a huge blow for their hopes. Nashua Titans are placed in Group A along with Chennai Super Kings, Victoria Bushrangers and Middlesex Crusaders. Titans are looking strong in the bowling department with pace bowlers like Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and spinner Paul Harris (injured). AB De Villiers is their batting star along with wicket keeper batsman HG Kuhn. They will play their first match with Middlesex Crusaders on December 5 in Chennai. Titans will face stiff competition from Victoria and Chennai Super Kings in Group-A and they may find it difficult to reach their target of semi-finals. Morne Morkel won the South African player 2008 award while MV Jaarsveld won the PCA player of the year 2008 award. India born GH Bedi won the 2007 Player of the year award. Pretoria Titans T20 Squad: Captain: Pierre Joubert. Champions League team: AB De Villiers, HG Kuhn (Wicket keeper), Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, MV Jaarsveld, GH Bedi, RE van der Merwe, Md Imran Tahir, EN Mbhalati, , Francois du Plessis, BD Walters, Farhaan Behardien, Paul Harris, and MA Phangiso. Note: Terrorist attacks in Mumbai are big blow to the Champions League tournament organizers. Terrorists attacked famous Taj and Oberoi hotels and held many foreigners as hostages for almost 10 hours. We have to see how foreign teams will react to this news. Middlesex already cancelled their Mumbai flight. … [Read more...]
Champions League cricket: Middlesex news
Champions league 2008 underdogs Middlesex Crusaders are in tough Group A and may find it difficult to reach semi-finals in this inaugural edition. Its performance in the recent Stanford series was also disappointing. Middlesex is the winner of the England's domestic Twenty20 cricket tournament and is said to be weakest among the eight teams that are participating in the Champions League 2008 T20 Cricket tournament. Middlesex is grouped along with strong teams like Chennai Super kings, Pretoria Titans and Victoria Bushrangers. Statement of the day: “We are happy for being the underdogs and we will perform well and will give shock to the favourites.” – Shaun Udal, Middlesex captain. Middlesex will take on favourite Victoria Bushrangers in the inaugural match on December 3rd in Mumbai. Middlesex is the only representative from England as Kent is disqualified. Happy news for Middlesex: England coach freed Owais Shah to play for Middlesex in the Champions League 2008. He is in good form and scored a superb half century in the 4th one day (22 overs match) against India. He terrorised Indian bowlers and almost took the match away from Indians under the most testing conditions. He is a player to watch out for in this Champions League. Middlesex will play without Dick Nannes as he represents his home side Victoria in this Champions League. Dick Nannes played crucial role in their win over Kent in the final of the domestic T20 cricket tournament. Middlesex opponents Pretoria Titans will play without their ace spinner Paul Harris after fracturing his left thumb whilst playing for South Africa against Bangladesh. IPL teams advantage: According to IPL rules, teams can have 4 overseas players in their teams. According to England T20 rules, only one overseas player can play for their club. According to Champions League rules, teams should play with the same squad that played in their domestic tournament. So IPL teams can play with 4 world class squads while Middlesex can have only one. … [Read more...]
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