Ryan ten Doeschate's bruising 64 from 32 broke the back of a mediocre Kandurata Maroons total, and all but secured Otago Volts' place in the Champions League proper, while very nearly damning their opponents to the opposite fate. The match had been set up again by the discipline of the Otago's fast men, who kept Kandurata down to 154 for 9, despite the best efforts of Upul Tharanga, who hit 76 from 56.
Ten Doeschate had not played the first match of the qualifiers, having not been released in time from Essex to come to India. The match was finely poised at 45 for 2, when he arrived at the crease, but within three overs, he had injected Volt's innings with the adrenaline that would not abate until the finish.
Kandurata's spinners had prospered in the first ten overs, but legspinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi could extract little turn from the surface, and it was off his first three balls that the match pivoted. Ten Doeschate charged the first, striking it long and straight, before hanging back to wallop his second six, over mid-on this time. The third six was swept flatter and squarer, and after that 20-run over, Otago needed only play sensibly to achieve the target.
A short period of consolidation followed that burst, but the boundaries began again in earnest in the 15th over, with James Neesham joining in. A square boundary off Nuwan Kulasekara's third over gave ten Doeschate his fifty off 26 balls, and when he had departed after another lucrative over, Otago needed only 9 from 17 balls. Neesham needed only five of those.
In Kandurata's innings, Tharanga was starved of his early penchant for off-side boundaries by a shrewd Otago strategy that prevented the kind of start he had achieved in their first match.
McCullum placed a cover sweeper almost from the outset, and had his pace bowlers pitch it full and wide. If Tharanga flashed at the ball, he brought the two slips and catching infielders into play. If he played it along the ground, he would not muster enough power into the stroke to earn more than two.
Kandurata hit only 25 in the Powerplay as a result, and it wasn't until Nathan McCullum's offspin was introduced that Tharanga's innings finally gained traction. Two balls disappeared long and straight during the eighth over, and Tharanga exacted as heavy a toll in McCullum's next over, which also went for 15.
While he propelled the innings though, Otago made regular gains at the other end. Kumar Sangakkara and Lahiru Thirimanne had both hit fifties in the first match, but were dismissed cheaply here, as short spells from Nick Beard and ten Doeschate crimped the scoring rate.
Having been 132 for 4 after 17 overs, Kandurata might have felt they should have surged beyond 160, but a fine 18th over from Ian Butler, from which three wickets were gleaned, left Kandurata at a sub-par total. Butler finished with the best figures for the Volts, earning 3 for 21, with James McMillan having taken 1 for 17 from his three overs.
This was Otago's 12th consecutive T20 win, the joint third longest streak in the format and, more importantly, leaves them on the verge of qualifying to the main tournament.
Sunrisers Hyderabad 131 for 3 (Dhawan 59) beat Faisalabad Wolves 127 for 5 (Misbah 56*) by seven wickets
The match was over as a competition in the 14th over of Sunrisers Hyderabad's chase. Saeed Ajmal had bowled his last over, remained wicketless and mostly ineffective. Shikhar Dhawan soon reached his second consecutive half-century in the Champions League Twenty20. In the 18th over, Sunrisers completed a seven-wicket victory over the Faisalabad Wolves, and eased into the group stages of the competition.
The result also ensured that Otago Volts, who had beaten Kandurata Maroons earlier in the day, also qualified. Sunrisers look to be the most well-balanced side among the four qualifiers, and will provide competition for the rest of the pack.
Dhawan's fifty came off 48 balls, and it had his usual dose of pleasing off-side strokes as well as some slogs. His only six was hit between reaching his fifty and getting out to left-arm spinner Imran Khalid. He added 68 for the first wicket with Parthiv Patel, before a 44-run stand with Jean-Paul Duminy during which they got over a tricky period when the ball kept low. Biplab Samantray got out for a duck to a beauty from Khalid, but Duminy and Darren Sammy completed the win.
Dhawan, Patel and Duminy tackled Ajmal quite well, but the offspinner was tasked with defending a low total in a ground favoured by chasing sides. The Faisalabad bowling was as insipid as their batting, except for their captain Misbah-ul-Haq who, like his time as Pakistan captain, played a lone hand.
Faisalabad's innings ran out of juice as soon as the Powerplay overs were completed, by when they had raced to 44 for 0. But two wickets fell in the next two overs and the run-rate fell too, as Sunrisers reclaimed momentum.
Amit Mishra made the difference at that stage, as he bowled four tight overs on the trot. His figures, 4-1-13-1, stunted Faisalabad's hopes of getting the score past 150. He started off with a wicket off his second ball when Ali Waqas flicked him to deep midwicket. Mishra's line was immaculate for most of the four overs, as he accumulated 17 dot balls. The only boundary in a spell that caused plenty of damage to Faisalabad's confidence was in his final over when Misbah launched him straight down the ground.
There was a danger of the Pakistan Twenty20 champions slipping further, but with Misbah around, they had fight at one end. Misbah struck five sixes and a four in his unbeaten 40-ball 56, becoming the oldest batsman - at the age of 39 - to score a fifty in the Champions League Twenty20.
He was playing a young man's game but his running between the wickets, the five sixes and the fight he provided showed he was in his element. He slammed four of his sixes down the ground, and the last one off Thisara Perera over square-leg, a timely and powerful swivel of the bat.
But despite all his efforts, Faisalabad's first Champions League campaign is set to be a short one as there was too much for Misbah and Ajmal to do.
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