On February 7, in the final of the Big Bash League, Mitchell Marsh smashed a 12-ball 37 to take Perth Scorchers from 144 for 3 in the end of the 17th over to a 20-over total of 191 for 4. Scorchers won the match by 39 runs. Two days later in the final of the Ram Slam T20 Challenge, Robbie Frylinck defended 14 runs off the last over to win the match for Dolphins.
When Scorchers met Dolphins in the Champions League, the two matchwinners in their respective domestic finals faced off. With Marsh on strike in the final over Scorchers needed 16 to win. Frylinck, attacking the blockhole remorselessly, had conceded only 16 in his first three overs.
For the first four balls, Frylinck's length was un-hittable. Scorchers scored only four runs, and lost Ashton Agar, who simply couldn't get any elevation on his attempted lap over short fine leg. Fifth ball, the pressure told on the bowler. Marsh came down the track, and out came a waist-high full-toss that disappeared over the leg-side boundary. It could have been called a no-ball, but the umpires - S Ravi and Rod Tucker - let it go.
Six from one, then. Frylinck searched for the yorker, and bowled a low full-toss. Marsh got under it and struck it so cleanly that he was running back to his team's dugout, bat aloft, even before the ball had cleared the boundary. With a combination of tight bowling from Frylinck and Kyle Abbott and a lack of fluency with the bat, Scorchers had come close to losing the match despite losing only four wickets in a chase of 165. Thanks to Marsh, they had squeaked over the line in an exciting finish that made up for some fairly tedious cricket till that point.
Craig Simmons, opening for Scorchers, had struggled to time his leg-side heaves, but had managed to keep the chase going at a decent run-rate with a 36-ball 48.
Sam Whiteman had been a little more fluent on his way to a 32-ball 45, lap-sweeping and driving inside-out through cover. They put on 55 for the second wicket at close to nine-and-a-half an over, but the partnership had begun with Scorchers on the back foot, having scored only 14 in their first four overs for the loss of Adam Voges.
Scorchers were still behind the required rate when Whiteman holed out in the 16th over, and Marsh - on 12 off 14 at that point - and new man Ashton Agar were left needing to score 47 from 25 balls. With a mixture of decent placement down the ground and luck - Agar was dropped in the covers in the 18th over, and he found the third-man boundary via the outside edge off Abbott - they kept Scorchers in the hunt, but it still required a couple of nervy full-tosses and nerveless hits to take them over the line.
Batting first, Dolphins were three down inside two overs, with Morne van Wyk, Cody Chetty and Delport discovering the pitfalls of slogging across the line against the left-arm swing of Joel Paris and Jason Behrendorff. But they continued to go after the bowling. Khaya Zondo played himself in at one end, while Keshav Maharaj and Daryn Smit played their shots.
The run-rate, as a result, kept them in the hunt for a biggish total, but they kept losing wickets. Dolphins were 46 for 4 at the end of the Powerplay overs, and 77 for 5 after 10.
They lost two more wickets by the 15th over, but by then Zondo had clicked into gear, taking guard outside leg stump or outside off to throw the bowlers off their lines, and pulling with authority whenever they dropped short. With Andile Phehlukwayo and Rob Frylinck demonstrating Dolphins' much-talked-about batting depth, 46 came off the last four overs, and Dolphins looked to have put their poor start behind them.
The Kings XI Punjab production line of batsmen was under threat of being shortcircuited again. But Akshar Patel strode in at No. 8 and clobbered 20 runs off the penultimate over to script a second successive victory in Mohali. The situation had not been too dire, but that cameo erased all doubts of the outcome of the match. Barbados Tridents, as their coach Desmond Haynes said, fought fire with fire when they amassed 174, but their bowling in the death could not keep to their disciplines.
Things had looked promising for Tridents when they got rid of Virender Sehwag and Glenn Maxwell in the space of 12 balls. Losing that much batting muscle with eight overs left and a run-rate climbing towards nine an over is never healthy. Unless you are Kings XI.
David Miller played an innings that didn't quite exemplify his 'in the arc out of the park' though philosophy.
He brushed past a few nervous moments against spin when Jeevan Mendis benefited from uncertain bounce. His timing was inconsistent, but found the boundary when needed most. Ashley Nurse was cracked for a six off the final ball of the 17th over. The equation reduced to 34 off 18. The last ball of the next one hurtled to the midwicket boundary to take it down to the wire. Kings XI needed 25 off 12 now. And then Akshar's carnage began.
Ravi Rampaul was belted to long-on, lofted over cover and hooked over the square leg boundary. In between there was outside edge to the third man boundary added to the excitement. Rampaul was Tridents' most experienced bowler. He had leaked 50 off his four overs. Akshar was the youngest player of the Kings XI side. He bashed 23 off only nine balls.
Rayad Emrit, the Tridents captain, had said he would have taken an equation of 20-odd in the final two overs. But his bowlers did not log enough time searching for the blockhole. The only potent threat was the legspinner Mendis who snared alarming turn on occasion and enjoyed low bounce on others to cede only 18 runs for two key wickets: Sehwag who had fueling a strong Kings XI start and George Bailey, the captain. Kings XI needed 47 off the final four overs. They got 50 off 3.4.
Bowling had seemed Tridents' strength coming into the tournament after losing Shoaib Malik, Dwayne Smith and Kieron Pollard. But this game forced that impression topsy-turvy.
Dilshan Munaweera, the Sri Lanka batsman, hammered 50 of his team's 61 during the powerplay. There were slugs down the ground, scoops behind the wicket, drills over and through cover to keep up a frenetic pace. He wasn't able to sustain it past the powerplay though. But the foundation had been laid.
Raymon Reifer bashed an unbeaten 60 off 42 balls. He used proactive footwork to find his power, coming down the track and muscling the ball thereon. He carted 40 of his runs from 26 balls off the spinners, who assisted his strokeplay by resorting to darts whenever they were attacked.
Kings XI's bowling was the weaker link, but they could lay claim to being caught by surprise - Munaweera's T20 strike rate before this game was 116. Reifer has only played six games across two seasons of CPL. Tridents though knew who they had at the crease and their dug out was buzzing throughout their batting innings. It wasn't a few hours on.
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