Ferguson stars as South Australia win

The Australian domestic twenty-20 cricket champions South Australia Redbacks showed character, skill, depth in either department to defeat the IPL side Kolkata by 19 runs in an important Group B match of Champions League. The victory comes days after the Australian side was overwhelmingly defeated by Cape Cobras in the first game. Kolkata’s defeat means the IPL team will have to play out of their skins to win next three games convincingly if it harbours any hopes of making it to the knock-out phase of the tournament.

Callum Ferguson and Daniel Christian powered super batting performance saw South Australia rack up 188 and followed it with a decent bowling show to limit Kolkata 20 short of the target. Having an asking rate of nearly 9.5 runs-an-over to deal with from the beginning, Kolkata batsmen did their level best but lost wickets every now and then to end their innings 169/9 in 20 overs.

Manvinder Bisla got the difficult chase off to a flier cracking three boundaries off first over bowled by offie Nathan Lyon but was castled by right arm pacer Kane Richardson next over to give South Australia breakthrough early. Shaqibul Hassan, promoted to number three, hit a four and six but top-edged short and wide delivery off another young pacer Gary Putland pegging Kolkata back.

Skipper Gautam Gambhir, feeling his way to cricket after neck injury, hit two fours in his run-a-ball nine before Lyon lured him to lob a simple catch to Micheal Klinger at cover. Jacques Kallis, who was tied down by disciplined Redbacks’ bowlers, had a good little stand of 35 with Manoj Tiwary for the fourth wicket. Daniel Harris’ part time medium pace did the trick for the Australian side taking a good reflex catch from Kallis to reduce Kolkata 81 for 4 in eleven overs.

Kolkata needed fireworks from Yusuf Pathan but big hitting all-rounder failed this time around to be dismissed by Putland for an 8-ball 5. There was some fightback from Tiwary hitting two sixes and as many fours in his 32-ball 40 and Ryan ten Doeschate two-runs-a-ball 32 but it helped only to narrow the gap of defeat.

In the end, a target of well over 185 proved too much for Kolkata against Redbacks who fielded quite admirably and caught superbly right throughout the innings. Harris and Putland claimed three wickets each for the winning side.

South Australia batting effort was laced with a combination of some orthodox and some muscular hitting. While Ferguson, who batted at number, treated fans with classic and copybook strokes, Christian muscled the ball to punish Kolkata bowlers with all the disdain.

The Australian side was going at a steady rate with score reading 94 for three at the end of 14th over, but, all of a sudden, Christian and Ferguson went berserk to punish Kolkata bowlers. So much so another 94 were added in last six overs as sixes and fours came thick and fast to propel the score past 185. The Redbacks were aided by sloppy Kolkata fielders who dropped as many three regular catches including one by Kallis of Ferguson on 18. The pair put on 88 for the fourth wicket off just 44 balls.

Ferguson gave an exhibition of some conventional strokeplay on his way to an unbeaten 40-ball 70 punctuated with five fours and four sixes. The big hitting all-rounder Christian peppered area between long-on and mid-wicket mostly hitting two sixes and four boundaries during his 27-ball tenure at the crease.

After Cameron Borges fell to Pathan last ball of eleventh over at the score of 77, Ferguson and Christian took their time before launching the attack. It all started in the 15th over with Ferguson scoring 19 off 20 conceded by Pathan with the help of a six sandwiched between three fours. Post Pathan’s expensive over, Kolkata bowlers couldn’t bowl desired line and lengths as the duo pummeled them to all corners of the ground.

In the 16th over 15 runs were collected, nine in the 17th, Brett Lee’s 18th was taken for 19, next over from Laxshmipathy Balaji conceded 16 and run rot ended with Lee conceding 15 in the final over.

Earlier, the Redbacks openers got off to a brisk start with Daniel Harris leading the way. The right hander hit a couple of sixes and as many fours in his 19-ball 26 out of 45 added for the first wicket between him and skipper Klinger. Balaji, who had dropped Harris off Iqbal Abdulla, made amends by pinging one short to advancing Harris only to top-edge it to the cover fielder.

Klinger didn’t last long run-out for 20 at the team score of 51. Ferguson had a steady stand of 26 with Borges before going for an over-drive in Christian’s company to bat Kolkata out of the game.

Barring Shaqibul who bowled his four wicketless for just 23, most of the Kolkata bowlers had poor figures with Pathan and Lee leaking 43 and 42 in their allotted quota of overs