Victoria and Cape Cobras were two teams that were favourites to go through to the semi finals from their group, the result of their clash at the Chinnaswamy Stadium notwithstanding.
However a win would have substantially boosted their chances of making it to the knockout stage and it was the Cape Cobras who triumphed in the encounter. The match was postponed by over an hour due to a bomb scare at the stadium and when it began, the same was reduced to a 17-overs-a-side affair.
Cameron White won the toss for Victoria and opted to put runs on the board. His side struggled to really recover from a lively opening spell from Monde Zondeki and the final score at the end of 17 overs read a just-about-par 125/5. In response, the Cobras romped home in 16 overs, thanks mainly to Henry Davis who anchored the chase with an unbeaten 54 ball 69, a knock that contained seven boundaries and two 6s.
The Cobras had a dream start when Zondeki picked up two wickets in the very 1st over by dismissing Rob Quiney and Brad Hodge. Thereafter, Aiden Blizzard tried to counter attack and was successful at that as well. But he got out just as he was looking seriously threatening and thereafter some tight bowling especially from Claude Henderson resulted in a few quiet overs.
Both Cameron White and David Hussey scored at a strike rate of less than 100 and it was left to Andrew McDonald and Matthew Wade to go for some quick runs to boost the final tally. Some loose bowling from JP Duminy and Rory Kleinveldt helped their cause and the Victorians ended up scoring 125 in their allotted 17 overs. McDonald top scored with 29 that came off 22 balls while for the Cobras Zondeki’s spell of 4-0-21-2 stood out from the rest.
The Cobras’ innings suffered an early jolt in the form of skipper Andrew Puttick losing his wicket in the 1st ball of the 2nd over. But 11 runs were already scored off the 1st over and that was perhaps a sign of things to come. Wicketkeeper Derek Brand who opened with his skipper smashed five boundaries and a 6 enroute to a 15 ball 29 and the momentum that was built was then carried over by Henry Davids and JP Duminy. Davids especially was the aggressor in the partnership and did the bulk of the scoring while Duminy played the perfect support role.
As the Victorians spilled two chances to take David’s wicket, the Cobras coasted to victory in the end with an over to spare. For the Victorians, Peter Siddle was the most economical bowler with figures of 4-0-19-1 while Davids was rightly adjudged the ‘Man of the Match.’