Sialkot Stallions entered their maiden Champions League T20 with an awe-inspiring domestic record. They had won Pakistan’s Twenty20 competition seven out of nine times and possess a world-record winning streak of 25 matches. However, on a Wanderers pitch that bounced and seamed, they were undone by Auckland Aces’ pace attack and their own desire to swing with abandon.
The predominant features of Sialkot’s innings were batsmen playing and missing and an abundance of dot balls; their attempts at counter-attacking were short lived. Their batsmen cleared the Wanderers’ boundaries ten times but managed to score only 130. It was the third-lowest total for an innings that contained ten sixes; the first two were chases in which the target was easily achieved. The target was well below par and Auckland’s openers, Martin Guptill and Lou Vincent, handled the bounce better than their counterparts did. The opening stand of 32 put the chase on course and the second-wicket stand of 51 between Guptill and Azhar Mahmood gave them an opportunity to win with a high net run-rate. They lost a couple of wickets in quick succession but New Zealand’s domestic champions managed to get home with 17 balls to spare.
Gareth Hopkins, the Auckland captain, got what he wanted despite losing the toss, and Kyle Mills and Michael Bates made excellent use of the conditions. On a green-tinged pitch, the right and left-arm combination harried the Sialkot openers with short-of-a-length deliveries. After Imran Nazir was smacked painfully on the glove, Shakeel Ansar attempted a big hit in Bates’ first over and holed out to mid-on. The No. 3 batsman Haris Sohail took 12 deliveries to get off the mark, before Nazir ended two consecutive maiden overs by pulling Bates over the fine-leg boundary. There were 24 dot balls in the first five overs, after which Sialkot were 11 for 1. Mills’ figures were 3-1-4-0. The sixth went for plenty. Mahmood’s length was poor and Sohail hit him for two sixes in an over that cost Auckland 18. Both Sohail and Nazir, however, were caught at point attempting aggressive shots in successive overs, leaving Sialkot 30 for 3.
Shahid Yousuf was Sialkot’s best chance at recovery and he hit Andre Adams, bowling extremely quick for a five-step run-up, for consecutive sixes in the ninth over. In the next, Yousuf took two fours off Colin Munro’s only over. At the other end, however, Shoaib Malik was struggling, scoring only 3 off his first 11 deliveries. Yousuf was reprieved twice off Ronnie Hira – Hopkins failed to collect and stump the batsmen – before the spinner took a catch off his own bowling to stunt the Sialkot recovery. Malik’s innings ended via a catch at long-off and Sialkot slumped to 97 for 6 before the tail got stuck into Hira’s final over, the 18th. Naved-ul-Hasan and Ali Khan took 21 runs off it.
I thought 130 was enough: Malik
It’s a sign of the times that a total of 130 in 20 overs is a described as below par. But, Twenty20 cricket has produced attitudes that think anything less than eight runs an over, or thereabouts, is not competitive enough, and Sialkot showed why that way of thinking persists as their below-par total was chased with ease. Sialkot’s score resulted from a combination of a start that was too slow for them to make up and conditions that favoured Auckland’s attack. Kyle Mills and Michael Bates gave away only 11 runs in the first five overs and both got the ball to nip away off the seam against tentative Sialkot openers. “Having a good start is something we target. Kyle Mills prides himself on using that first over to set the momentum,” Gareth Hopkins, the Auckland captain, said. “But it was also a tricky wicket to bat on, especially with the new ball.” Mills was Man of the Match for his spell of 4-1-6-2, an effort he aid was due to a disciplined line. “I was conscious of not giving away any width and bowling on off stump,” he said. “We built pressure from both ends and they were always on the back foot.” Shoaib Malik thought the use of the heavy roller during the break between matches could have brought up moisture from the morning rain – Johannesburg’s first showers in over two weeks – to the surface and added to his side’s difficulty. To get 130 on that surface and after that start was something Malik was proud of. “It was very tough when we were batting and the Auckland bowlers used the conditions well, but Shahid Yousuf batted brilliantly in the end. I thought it was enough.”
