Group C (Bangalore, Cape Cobras, Otago)

[Howsie]

Otago could well be a dark horse for this. Like normal nobody seems to give a New Zealand team a chance probably more so from a lack of information about the team but there are six Blackcaps in there plus an English international and on top of that a couple more players which will certainly play for New Zealand in the future. They are a strong team.

X2 Otago will take this pool

Wagner
Butler
Mascarenhas
McCullum
Beard/McMillan

That's a really strong bowling line-up and yet the batting is Otago's strength.

 

[Howsie]

Otago Cricket - Encouraging Start for Otago Volts

The Otago Volts have made an encouraging start to their Champions League Twenty20 campaign with a narrow loss to IPL winners the Deccan Chargers in a warm up match.

The Volts who were without their four BLACKCAPS who are still on route from the Champions Trophy and Nathan McCullum who was rested lost the toss and were put into bat by Chargers captain Adam Gilchrest.


Derek de Boorder batted throughout the innings for 49 not out and was supported by Hamish Rutherford 37, Craig Cumming 26 and Dimitri Mascarenhas 31 in the Volts total of 164/3.

The Volts started well in the field and had the Chargers 89/5 in the 12th. However at that point the class of Adam Gilchrest came through and his 75 not out of just 53 balls and the support of Andrew Symonds 28 and Chaminda Vaas 16 not out at the end, meant the Chargers reached the total six down at the end of the 19th over.

Dimitri Mascarenhas finished with 2/27 and Warren McSkimming 1/18 for the Volts.

Good to see them go so well against a pretty much full strength Deccan XI, good to see Hamish Rutherford put up a good score.

 

[aussie1st]

Pretty good total against the IPL champions, the x-factor players got the Chargers home but Otago still got 3 to come back, McCullum seems to be down the drain so I won't include him.

 

[CG123]

Sweet, good start Otago.

 

[Sartaj]

Yeah.
Good start,but the link Howsie attached spells Gilchrist wrong

 

[Howsie]

Well it is Otago

 

[nz0003]

Otago! decent side.

 

[Howsie]

It's a shame Sky isn't showing this in New Zealand as I was really interested in seeing how some of the younger players go. Hopefully Otago go with two spinners so Nick Beard get's a game, from what I've seen of him I've really liked. His action is a little bit like Abdur Razzak's (with more flight though). When the New Zealand under 19 team toured England last year the English coach Andy Pick named Williamson and Beard as two future stars for New Zealand and said all the English batsmen found him hard to face and even get away.

 

[angryangy]

Bangalore's squad oozes class and while it's hard to see Otago competing with that, it might also inspire the Cobras to step up against a raft of countrymen. Graeme Smith, especially with his recent form, could have made this an almost easy task, but alas he will be absent.

The Cobras could turn to their bowlers to get the edge, but they also have a secret weapon; Sybrand Engelbrecht. This 21 year old veteran of 1 T20 might not seem like much, but he may just be the best fielder in the world. South Africa U19 brought him along to the last World Cup purely because of his incredible fielding, the South Africa seniors also used him as a sub and it looks like the Cobras will continue that mighty tradition. The ambidextrous Engelbrecht is also known for his off-spin and the rather distracting ability to swap the ball from hand to hand in his run up.

 

[yashwanth kumar]

I back up Bangalore RC:happy:happy

 

[ZexyZahid]

The first match is Bangalore v Cape Cobras. Great start of this Champions League. I am expecting Cobras to reach the semi-finals.

 

[piriyanth]

Brendon Mccullum is going to blast another 158 against Bangalore ..

If he open the innings that is.

 

[irottev]

Pretty good total against the IPL champions, the x-factor players got the Chargers home but Otago still got 3 to come back, McCullum seems to be down the drain so I won't include him.

He plays fine for other sides. It's just when he plays for NZ he doesn't front up.

It's a shame Sky isn't showing this in New Zealand as I was really interested in seeing how some of the younger players go.

You're joking right? Is that 100%? I took it as a given that if we had a side competing we'd be getting coverage. If not that's an absolute disgrace It was a good chance to get NZers involved in domestic cricket again. I hope you're wrong. I'll be very disappointed.

Heck i'll just online stream it I guess.

 

[Howsie]

My bad, I just checked the Sky Guide online and we are getting coverage. I think we are only getting Otago's games but I'm not sure...

Someone to confirm?

 

[Ari]

Checked the online sky guide and it seems we are getting Otago games live and highlights from other matches.