Titans vs Perth Scorchers - M1- CLT20-2012

Titans vs Perth Scorchers - M1- CLT20-2012 - Match Report:

Titans-vs-Perth-Scorchers-CLT20-2012


The Karbonn Champions League T20 got off to a fantastic start as the home team Titans humbled the Perth Scorchers by 39 runs in the opening match at Centurion Park.

After being put in to bat, the Titans openers saw their team off to a flier; the first two scoring shots were a four and a six; and that set the tone for the rest of the innings. Jacques Rudolph and Henry Davids matched each other stroke for stroke; while they played some ruthless shots, they also used a cerebral approach to building the innings. They scored 50 runs off the first six overs when the field restrictions were in place, milked the good deliveries thereafter and made the most of the weak links in the opposition’s bowling.

Both Davids and Rudolph identified Mitchell Marsh and Ben Edmondson as the ones to go after and singled them out for some special treatment. Rudolph hit Marsh for three boundaries and a six, and scored 12 runs off the six balls he faced off Edmondson; while Davids scored 29 runs off the nine balls he faced from the duo.

The pair added 109 runs in 12.2 overs, before they were separated. While Rudolph preferred to hit the ball mostly along the ground, his partner hit four sixes and as many boundaries in his 38-ball 54. Davids perished when he attempted to send a delivery from Beer into the stands, but missed the ball altogether and had his stumps rearranged.

Even as Rudolph would bat through the innings and remain unbeaten on 83 (59 balls), the Titans would lose their way at the end. After a 51-run partnership between Rudolph and van Jaarsveld, the Titans lost three wickets in the space of five deliveries to lose momentum at the end of their innings. They finished at 163 for four – about 15 runs short of where they looked like finishing at one stage.

Among the Perth Scorchers bowlers, Nathan Rimmington was the most impressive pacer, while the experienced Brad Hogg impressed bowling his left-arm chinaman. The left-arm spinner Michael Beer, who was hit for a four and a six in his first over, recovered well to finish with respectable figures of one for 29 from his four overs. Marsh and Edmondson would together go for 58 in their four overs.

Faced with an asking rate of 8.20, the Perth Scorchers’ innings never got going. After a slow start, Shaun Marsh threw his bat at a wide one from CJ de Villiers to be caught at slip. The skipper Marcus North was dismissed the following delivery for a first-ball duck. And when Herschelle Gibbs and Simon Katich perished for 19 and 23 respectively, the innings was disintegrating fast.

But Mitchell Marsh played a useful knock – during which he played some delightful shots – to give his team’s total some respectability; the 20-year-old scored 52 and hit five boundaries and a six in his 41-ball unbeaten innings. The Perth Scorchers would eventually finish at 124 for seven – 39 runs short of their target.

For the home team, CJ de Villiers was outstanding with the ball; he came on to bowl in the fourth over and immediately broke the backbone of the Perth Scorchers innings with the wickets of Marsh and North. Together with the wicket of Joe Mennie, he finished with figures of three for 16 from his four overs. He could have picked another wicket – if only he had clung on to a return catch offered by Katich.

Eden Links, Alfonso Thomas, Roelof van der Merwe and David Wiese also chipped in with a wicket each.

Brief Scores: Titans 163-4 in 20 overs (Jacques Rudolph 83*, Henry Davids 54, Nathan Rimmington 2-20) beat Perth Scorchers 124-7 in 20 overs (Mitchell Marsh 52*, CJ de Villiers 3-16) by 39 runs.

Man of the Match: CJ de Villiers, for his spell of 3 for 16, which broke the backbone of the Perth Scorchers line-up.

van Jaarsveld: "I thought we lost a little bit of momentum in the back end of our innings. It was fantastic to see our bowlers get the ball in the right areas. It is huge for us to start like this and we have gathered momentum straight away. Playing at home is going to be big for us, it's almost like having a 12th man with a crowd like this."

North: "Titans started really well, I thought we pulled it back to a par score but we left too much work for our middle order. We know that our top four have to make the majority of the runs but we couldn't do that today. It's all about executing next game, this is a very tough competition so we will need to prepare well."

Source: clt20.com

Related Links:

CLT20-2012:Titans Squad and Schedule
CLT20-2012:Perth Scorchers Squad and Schedule

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