By BV Swagath
Otago Volts crushed Sunrisers Hyderabad by 5 wickets finishing off the match with 22 balls to spare in the last qualifying match of CLT20 2013. This dominating victory was scripted by the McCullum brothers. Nathan McCullum bounced back after two poor outings with the ball to take 2 for 23 in 4 overs after opening the bowling for a change. The off-spinner took the wickets of the in-form Parthiv Patel and Shikhar Dhawan to break the backbone of Sunrisers’ batting.
After restricting Sunrisers to a modest total of 143 for 5, Otago Volts smashed the target in just 16.2 overs. Skipper Brendon McCullum played a fierce knock of 67* from 39 balls with 5 fours and 5 sixes.
Sunrisers after getting excellent start from its openers in the first two matches had a bad one tonight. Parthiv Patel was bowled by Nathan McCullum trying to cut an arm ball in the 3rd over. Shikhar Dhawan, who should have been given out lbw to the same bowler, got out in the 5th over scoring just 12. Nathan McCullum took Dhawan’s wicket as well to finish off with 4-0-23-2. JP Duminy built the innings for the Sunrisers with a neat knock of 57 not out from 38 balls with 7 fours. Cameron White with a 23-ball 25 and Darren Sammy with a 22-ball 26 played their part in supporting Duminy.
All the Otago bowlers with the exception of Ryan ten Doeschate bowled well to keep the Sunrisers to a modest total. Otago batsmen pounded at the target in a positive manner right from the word go. Neil Broom (16 from 15 balls) looked in great touch before edging behind a pull off Steyn to the keeper in the 3rd over. Left-handed Hamish Rutherford was playing in his usual aggressive style, but he had to content himself with only a cameo like in the previous two games. Rutherford scored 27 from 23 balls and was dismissed gloving a pull off Steyn to the keeper. Otago at this stage had already blasted 80 runs on the board in 9.4 overs.
Otago’s plan was simple to score as many runs as possible against the quicks before the spinners came on. Skipper Brendon McCullum, who was let off by Parthiv Patel in an easy stumping opportunity, went onto make most of the opportunity to score a match-winning 67. James Neesham was impressive for his 13-ball 21 which contained two effortless sixes. Otago wrapped up the night in just 16.2 overs in the second half. The match came to an end quickly as Brendon McCullum took Ishant Sharma to the cleaners by scoring 22 runs in the 15th over. The Man of the Match award went to Nathan McCullum for his important strikes early on.
Toss and Teams: Otago Volts have won the toss and asked the Sunrisers Hyderabad to bat first in the last qualifying match at Mohali. Both the sides are through to the main tournament.
Otago Volts: Neil Broom, Hamish Rutherford, Brendon McCullum (Captain), Ryan ten Doeschate, Jimmy Neesham, Nathan McCullum, Derek de Boorder (Wicket Keeper), Michael Bracewell, Sam Wells, Neil Wagner, Nick Beard
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Parthiv Patel (Wicket Keeper), Jean-Paul Duminy, Biplab Samantray, Cameron White, Darren Sammy, Ashish Reddy, Karan Sharma, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn
