The first semi of the Champions League Twenty20 played at the Bangalore Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday, proved to be a very tough match with both sides faring equally well and the best won the match at the end. But the classy versatility of the players on both the sides needs to be commended for giving the audience, who were on the edges of their seats till the last ball of the match, the best. After a roller-coaster ride into the knockout stages of the tournament for Royal Challengers Bangalore and New South Wales Blues, the two sides met in the first semi-final. And RCB skipper Daniel Vettori has won the toss and elected to bowl first.
NSW (203/2in twenty overs) have recorded their highest total in the Tournament, bettering the 201 for two against Chennai Super Kings at Chennai on October 4, 2011. David Warner (123 off 68 balls) became the first batsman to register two centuries in the present competition and also established a record for most sixes (11) in an innings.
In reply the RCB (204/4 in 18.3 overs) took on the struggle with ease with just one negative point in the form of the dismissal of their star batsman Dilshaan in the third over. But consolidated later with Chris Gayle’s thunderous knock of 92 runs with the ball going over the ropes for eight times and crossing it in equal numbers, which summed up to eight sixes and eight fours. The knock was substantiated by another applauding performance from another RCB star Virat Kohli with 84 runs which saw ten boundaries and three balls for sixes.
But Warner's 123 (68b) and his 87-ball 146-run stand with the portly Daniel Smith was made to look pedestrian by RCB's own second wicket pair of Gayle (92, 41b) and Kohli, whose 141-run association came off a mere 66 balls and ensured that the win came with as many as nine balls to spare. Spare a thought for the bowlers in either side too, none of whom stood a chance against all the mad hitting that went on right through the game.
In the end RCB won over NSW to meet the outcome of today’s match between Somerset and Mumbai Indians in the final. There is speculation whiff amidst the cricket specialists whether it will be all Indian final or an English Indian final in the Nokia Champion league to be played at Chennai on Sunday.
