It’s hardly been the surge into the play-offs many would have anticipated after their first two matches, but the Nashua Titans are in the semifinals of the Champions League T20 and to progress any further, they’ll have to produce their best performance so far in the competition.
Their opponents today, the Sydney Sixers – champions of the Australian Big Bash League – have been the outstanding outfit in the tournament. There’s been no secret to their success, their strategy was clear from the moment they stepped off the plane – to blast out the opposition with a phalanx of fast bowlers. And thus far that strategy has proved very successful.
Josh Hazelwood, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cumins, Moses Henriques and Shane Watson, have taken advantage of seamer-friendly conditions to have their way with opponents during the group stages, propelling Sydney to four consecutive wins. All of those triumphs were of the comfortable variety as they claimed nine wickets in three matches and eight in the final group match against Mumabi.
What that indicates is that the Sixers aren’t necessarily interested in containment, certainly not in the sense of keeping it tight; the strategy of taking wickets to keep the scoring rate down has worked perfectly for them and there’s no reason to deviate from that this evening at SuperSport Park.
“I don’t think we regard the Sixers as the best team at the tournament. Their pace attack has been in good form but to say that we’re facing somewhat of an unknown factor isn’t quite accurate,” said Titans wicket-keeper, Heino Kuhn. “It doesn’t take into account that we’ve produced some great pace bowling talent as well in men like Morné Morkel, Dale Steyn and Marchant de Lange. It means we’ve always been exposed to playing good fast bowling.”
While they may be accustomed to facing quick bowling in the nets, in this tournament, the Titans have been too reliant on a good start from their openers Jacques Rudolph and Henry Davids. When that duo failed, admittedly in pursuit of a hefty target of 189, against the Kolkata KnightRiders, the Titans were thumped by 99 runs.
There shouldn’t be any residual effects of that defeat but it would not have passed the attention of the Sixers, and given their bruising approach, they’ll have Davids and Rudolph in their sights.
Because of the success of their openers, the likes of Martin van Jaarsveld, Kuhn and Farhaan Berhardien have batted with under little pressure – until they faced Kolkata. That defeat however would have provided some useful insights for the players, and coach Matthew Maynard will be hopeful that the lessons learned there will aid in producing a better performance tonight.
“We go out and just get on with the job,” said Kuhn.
“The great thing about this squad is that we’re tightly knit and that we share and enjoy each other’s accomplishments. That sometimes can give one the edge over more fancied opponents. It’s also why I think the South African teams have been so successful in this tournament. We played for each other and focus on team interests instead of being pre-occupied with having many star players.”
Meanwhile the tournament organisers yesterday created a special reserve day in case either semifinal was rained off. Should that be the case there would be a double header at Centurion tomorrow. If only one match needs to be played because of a rain out that match would start at 5.30pm.
Teams:
Nashua Titans (from): Jacques Rudolph, Henry Davids, Martin van Jaarsveld (capt), Heino Kuhn, Farhaan Berhardien, David Wiese, CJ de Villiers, Eden Links, Ethy Mbhalati, Mangaliso Mosehle, AB de Villiers, Paul Harris, Alfonso Thomas, Roelof van der Merwe, Rowan Richards.
Sydney Sixers (from): Michael Lumb, Peter Nevill, Nic Maddinson, Brad Haddin (capt), Steve Smith, Ian Moran, Ben Rohrer, Steve O’ Keeffe, Moses Henriques, Domini Thornley, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood, Pat Cumins, Nathan McCullum.