Warriors made it to the finals of the Champions League 2010

Yesterday, Warriors faced the Southern Redbacks in the second match of semi-finals at Centurion, Tshwane. Southern Redbacks have won all the four matches in the prelims and were looking strong and confident to win this match. On the other hand, Warriors have lost only one match in the prelims and are also looking to enter finals considering their good performances shown by them in the prelims. Warriors won the toss and they chose to bat first.

Davy Jacobs and Ashwell Prince opened the batting innings for the Warriors. Davy Jacobs took a single in the very first delivery of the match. Ashwell Prince got duck out by giving an easy catch to Daniel Harries. Warriors lost their first wicket in the second ball of their batting innings. This was supposed to be an bad start for them but Davy Jacobs and Colin Ingram played ultimately well. They both put up an partnership of 104 runs in just 74 deliveries. They just kept on hitting fours in each and every over. After the fall of Davy Jacobs and Colin Ingram, the Warriors were in trouble as they kept on loosing wickets and their run rate started to drop. While the last few deliveries were left, Nicky Boje came in to bat as they lost their 6th wicket. Nicky Boje played an magnificent innings as he quick-fired to score 22 runs in just 7 deliveries which included 2 fours and 2 sixes. This helped the Warriors to end up with a total score of 175 runs in 20 overs. Daniel Harris was the most economical bowler with an economy rate of just 4.5 runs per over and took 3 important wickets.

Southern Redbacks needed 176 runs to win the match if they want to enter in to the finals to face the Chennai Super Kings which will be played on Sunday. Southern Redbacks started their batting innings with the openers, Daniel Harris and Michael Klinger. They both gave a slow start as they don't want to loose any wickets and wanted to get well settled before going for some big shots. In the fourth over, they both got out which led them to enter in to an bad situation. They started to loose wickets in regular intervals which resulted in the drop of their run rate each time. By 20 overs, SRB managed to score only 145 runs with the loss of 7 wickets. Teams top scorer was Callum Ferguson who scored 71 runs 49 deliveries that included 8 fours and 2 sixes. Warriors won the match by 30 runs and were eligible to enter the finals of the Airtel Champions League 2010. Man of the match was Davy Jacobs for giving a perfect start who played well with the bat and scored 61 runs from 41 deliveries that included 10 fours and a six.


Warriors will be playing against the Chennai Super Kings in the finals of the Champions League on Sunday. A match between the champions of India and the South Africa. See you all with the updates on the finals. Bye and Cheers....

Champions League Twenty20: Wayamba Elevens vs Victorian Bushrangers

Yesterday, Wayamba Elevens faced Victorian Bushrangers at Centurion, Tshwane. This was one of the important and a must win match for the Victorian Bushrangers in order to make it to semis. Wayamba Elevens had already lost 2 matches that makes them to walk out of the tournament once this prelims is over. Wayamba Elevens won the toss & elected to bat first.

Mahela Jayawardene and Jeevantha Kulatunga opened the batting innings for the team. They gave a very good start in the very first over scored 9 runs in that over. Jeevantha Kulatunga got duck out in James Pattinson's first delivery. Even Mahela Udawatte got duck out in the very same over where Wayamba lost its second wicket with a total score of 9 runs. Jehan Mubarak and Mahela Jayawardene put up a 71 runs partnership which helped the team to come out of a very bad situation. But after the break of this partnership, Wayamba Elevens were totally destroyed. They lost remaining 7 wickets very quickly. By 16.3 overs, they lost all the 10 wickets and made a total score of just 106 runs. Peter Siddle took 4 important wickets which helped them to restrict the Wayambas to land up with 106.


Victorian Bushrangers needed 107 runs to win the match and keep the hopes alive to enter into semis. Aaron Finch and Brad Hodge started the batting play for the Bushrangers. Brad Hodge got out quickly and so was Matthew Wade. Aaron Finch stayed till the end of the their batting innings. David Hussey came in to bat with Aaron Finch and made a good partnership of 77 runs. David Hussey remained unbeaten scoring 47 runs from just 28 deliveries which included 4 fours and 2 sixes. By 13.2 overs, Bushrangers made a total of 108 runs thereby defeating the Wayambas by 8 wickets. Man of the match was Petere Siddle.


After this victory, the Bushrangers have to win their last match with a huge margin so that even if Chennai Super Kings with lower margin, Bushrangers will enter into semis. CSK are looking very dominant and have more chances of making it to semis.

Champions League Twenty20: Guyana vs Royal Challengers Bangalore

Second match of the day was played between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Guyana at Centurion, Tshwane. Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and put Guyana to bat first.

Travis Dowlin and Sewnarine Chattergoon started the batting innings for Guyana. This gave a little slow start and started to take pace. But after the completion of 4th over, Travis Dowling lost his wicket by giving a simple catch to Dale Steyn bowled by Praveen Kumar. This turned out to be a bad sign for the Guyana as they started to loose wickets in regular intervals with drop in their net run rate. It lost all 10 wickets in 20 overs and could just make a century. They were bowled out for 103 runs with loss of 10 wickets. Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper was the most economical bowler for the team as his economy rate was just 2.5 runs per over and he also took a wicket. Jacques Kallis took 3 wickets with a economy rate of 4 runs per over.


Royal Challengers Bangalore needed 104 runs to win from 20 overs with 10 wickets on hand. This total is not at all a good one as it could be easily chased. RCB have an very good batting lineup with some great and well experienced players. Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid opened the batting innings for the team. They both started off well and put up a partnership of 78 runs. Rahul Dravid was bowled out by Royston Crandon. Rahul Dravid scored 33 runs from 34 deliveries that included 3 fours. Later Robin Uthappa came in to bat where he played magnificently well and completed the innings for RCB in a grand style. He quick fired to score 25 runs from just 8 deliveries that included 2 fours and 2 sixes. By 12.2 over, RCB scored 106 runs in total and won the match by 9 wickets. Jacques Kallis was unbeaten with a score of 43 runs from 32 runs which included 4 fours and a six. Jacques Kallis was picked up as the man of the match as he showed an brilliant performance both with bat and ball.

Flaws in the Selection process is the reason for the defeat

India's Former Olympians have blamed that the back-to-back defeats against Spain & Australia in the World Cup was mainly due to the flaws in selection process.

Aslam Sher Khan, a member of India's 1975 World Cup, feels that the selection committee must own the responsibility of the team's poor performance in the last two matches.

Ashok Kumar, who was also team-mate of Aslam said that the present defence of the national team was the weakest ever seen in the history of Indian hockey.

They also blamed Sandeep as a very weak defender who commited plenty of mistakes in yesterday's match. Sandeep had 6 penalty corners in which he had converted only one out of those.

Both Ashok Kumar and Aslam Sher Khan feel that India would struggle to finish even in the top sixth position in this World Cup.