Cape Cobras bite the Otago Volts in Hyderabad

By Tanmay S
for Cricketain.com

Published: October 12, 2009

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Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Hyderabad: Andrew Puttick’s unbeaten 104 from just 62 ball set the tone of match for Cape Cobras, who had a cakewalk win over the Otago Volts in group C’s fourth match, in the Airtel Champions league. The Cape Cobras comprehensively won by 54 runs. Puttick hammered the ball around the ground in the captain’s knock, hitting 3 sixes and a dozen fours. Puttick completed his century in the eighteenth over.

Although slightly overshadowed by Puttick’s play, JL Ontong played a spectacular innings by scoring unbeaten 39 from just 19 balls towards the end of the first innings. Ontong entertained the crowds by whacking four sixes.  Before that, JP Duminy, star of the previous game, put up an impressive batting exhibition along with his captain when the pair scored 95 in partnership.

In a courageous decision, the Otago Volts won the toss and chose to field, a decision that didn’t work in their favour at all. Interestingly, Somerset chose to field in the following game after winning the toss, although the results of the first match on the ground were out and the team who played first won comprehensively.

Right from the start the Cobras were undoubtedly on the top. They quickly realised that big hitting will be key to a good win. Having won the previous game against Bangalore on the opponents’ home ground in a thriller starring JP Duminy, they had little to fear. With this win, they sealed their place in the super eights with a smile, scoring 4 points in the tournament.

Defending 194, a strong score, Cobras always had the morals high in their side. Cobras significantly improved their fielding in this match, as compared to the last. This worked in their favour. For the overs they played, Otago volts were scoring at a descent rate but lost wickets at regular intervals. It wouldn’t be wrong to say the Cobras overpowered the Volts in all departments, be it fielding, bowling or batting. With Puttick hammering powerful shots around the ground, the batting of the Cobras was especially outstanding. The Volts conceded staggering 121 runs in the last ten overs.

In return, Otago Volts started well with Brendon McCullum and AJ Redmond putting together a 33 run partnership for the first wicket in just 3.5 overs. Overall the Volts put up a lackluster performance, with Nathan McCullum scoring the highest at 38 off 21 deliveries.

During the eighth over of Volts’ innings, Henry Davids ran Neil Broom out during his live conversation with the TV commentators, a fairly unusual incident in any form of the game. Herschelle Gibbs had a great day on the field with two superb catches and a run-out to his credit.

The losing captain, Crain Cumming looked disappointed by the loss as his team finds itself in a do-or-die situation in the next game against Bangalore. During the presentation, he mentioned that his team would love to hang around in India for more time as it gives good international cricketing experience to his young team.

As expected, Puttick won the Airtel Man of The Match Award for his batting exploits. For the Volts, Dimitri Mascarenhas won the Super Saver Bowler award for conceding only 20 runs in the four overs he bowled.

With their position secure in the next league having won both league matches, Cobras were the playing favourites today. Watch out for them in the next game!

Brief scores: Cape Cobras 193 for 4 (AG Puttick 104*, JL Ontong 39*, Mascarenhas 2-20) beat Otago Volts 139 all out (NL McCullum 38, RK Kleinveldt 3-24) by 54 runs.

Player of the Match: A G Puttick of Cape Cobras

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WPSN comments

One Comment on "Cape Cobras bite the Otago Volts in Hyderabad"

  1. Abhilash Shirodkar on Mon, 12th Oct 2009 12:54 pm 

    The article is very impressively written, it certainly is the best story so far on the web.




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