Exactly at which point Neil Broom had begun to take off is hard to tell. It could be when he struck Burt Cockley for three consecutive fours in the 14th over, or just the sight of Ryan ten Doeschate at the other end, upon which he hit the first of his eight sixes. One can be quite certain that Simon Katich had no idea, because by the time Broom had walked off at the end of the Otago innings having scored an unbeaten 117, the Perth Scorchers captain was looking at a total - 242 for four in 20 overs - far beyond the reaches of his young team.
And it remained so, as they made 180 for 6, and Otago finishing with an emphatic 62-run win. With the win, the New Zealand side not only kick-started their Champions League campaign, they set a few records on the way.
They have now completed a streak of 14 consecutive Twenty20 wins, second only to Sialkot Stallion's 25-match winning streak. They had made the highest team score in the Champions League, as well as their best as a team, and Broom became only the fourth batsman to score a hundred in the competition, and the first in two years.
Broom was the main man for Otago, hammering, swatting and cracking sixes and fours on his way to a 56-ball unbeaten 117. He smashed nine fours and eight sixes. He played out 14 dot balls, most of them at the start of his innings when he saw two wickets fall in consecutive balls in the third over.
There were some nervy moments during his 67-run third wicket stand with Derek de Boorder but that was, as it was later understood by Otago's continuous onslaught, a way to unnerve the Scorchers' bowlers. There were some close calls, including a dropped catch at slip by Adam Voges when de Boorder's slash only found the edge in the fourth over.
After de Boorder fell to Voges after making 45 off 28 balls with five fours and two sixes, ten Doeschate weighed in. The Dutch allrounder straightaway went after the bowling, and increasingly, Broom too became aggressive.
Broom saw ten Doeschate survive a catch at long-on, the ball trickling over the rope, and still go after the bowling. Both were now on the charge, hounding the younger bowlers with boundaries off the first ball of their overs. They brought up their 100-run stand in just 39 balls, and Otago reached the 200-run mark in the 18th over.
Soon, Broom reached his maiden Twenty20 hundred with a swivel pull, one of many leg-side sixes during his marauding knock. He struck three consecutive sixes in the 19th over, the second of which brought up his century. His second fifty came in just 17 balls.
The Scorchers' torment worsened when Liam Davis holed out at third man off the first ball of their innings. Ashton Agar, the other opener, fell off the last ball of the over, top-edging to the keeper. And as it happens in such dire situations, there was a run-out, Katich becoming the victim of poor calling with Voges. From 11 for 3, a successful chase looked improbable, to put it mildly.
Otago's blitz from 9 for 2 to 242 for 4 should have inspired the Scorchers but they didn't find a Broom among themselves. Only a 65-run fourth wicket stand between Hilton Cartwright and Voges took them out of the slide, before Cartwright added another 51 runs for the fifth wicket with Ashton Turner. Cartwright was unbeaten on 69 off 53 balls with six fours and a couple of sixes.
But this will be the most memorable day in Broom's Twenty20 career, having not played for New Zealand since 2010. Otago too have proved themselves as a strong domestic side, though they have a lot to prove in the rest of this tournament.
Rajasthan Royals 183 for 5 (Hodge 46*, Binny 38, Tsotsobe 2-26) beat Lions 153 for 9 (Petersen 40, Tambe 4-15, Faulkner 2-22, Malik 2-26) by 30 runs
Brad Hodge's late assault on Lions' bowlers and an unexpected four-wicket burst from legspinner Pravin Tambe propelled Rajasthan Royals to the top of Group A with eight points and also extended their unbeaten run in Jaipur to 10.
Before the start of the match, 160 was thought to be a par score, even though 422 runs had come in the previous match between Otago Volts and Perth Scorchers. But Hodge smashed an unbeaten 46 off 23 deliveries, 20 of them in the last over bowled by Sohail Tanvir, Lions' best bowler in the innings till then, to transform an average start into a match-winning total.
Royals, who were asked to bat, had made slow progress to 69 in their first 10 overs, with their first three batsmen already dismissed. But the innings was revived, first by a brief cameo from Shane Watson, then another equally important innings by Stuart Binny, before the late counterpunch by Hodge.
Over number 13 for Royals was the one that shifted the pendulum their way. Watson and Binny were in the rebuilding mode and the score stood at 83 for 3. Aaron Phangiso, who had bowled his two overs for 15 before that, wasn't prepared for the attack. Watson smashed two sixes and a four, while Binny found the boundary as well to raise the run rate from below seven to above eight.
When Phangiso came to bowl the 16th, Watson had been dismissed, but this time Binny went after him, hitting the bowler for a six over wide long-on and following it up with a four through extra cover to spoil Phangiso's figures to 52 runs in four overs.
From there on, the baton was passed to Hodge, who first picked up a couple of boundaries in the 17th over bowled by Dwaine Pretorius, and then destroyed Tanvir's tally in the last.
Tanvir had only given 15 in his three overs. But he erred by bowling length in the second ball of the last over and Hodge dispatched it to the wide long-on boundary for four. The next ball was short of length and coming into the batsman, but Hodge managed to slap it over cover. He pulled the next over deep square leg for a six before punishing the last one - a fuller length delivery - over long-off.
Lions, in their chase, never got into a position to threaten the total - they lost early wickets, two of them in consecutive deliveries off Vikramjeet Malik - and all hopes of a late fight were doused once Tambe was introduced. Rahul Dravid had brought he 41-year-old legspinner in the team as a response to the pitch that was used for this game and the bowler didn't disappoint. He struck on his third delivery, dismissing Hardus Viljoen, who had added 53 for the fourth wicket with Alviro Petersen.
In his second over, he outfoxed Jean Symes with a wide floater that was driven straight to cover and then had Sohail Tanvir plumb in front with a fuller delivery. With six wickets down, the onus was on Petersen to lead the fight, but he missed a quicker leg break in Tambe's third over to virtually end Lions' challenge.
The difference between the two innings could be measured in the four overs Royals took advantage of during their batting. Overs number 8, 13, 16 and 20 were taken for 16, 22, 15 and 21 runs respectively, which meant Royals scored 109 runs in the remaining 16, a run rate of less than seven-an-over. Lions maintained a run rate between seven and eight throughout their innings but failed to find those big overs, the third over with 14 runs being the best for them.
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