The opening day of the Champions League T20 qualifiers saw the Trinidad and Tobago side and the Kolkata Knight Riders record wins over their respective opponents at Hyderabad.
While the team from the Caribbean defeated the Ruhuna in the opening game of the day, Kolkata fought off the challenge from Auckland to scrape home winners.
Ruhuna batted first on a pitch that looked like it would become slower and play lower as the game progressed. That is exactly how it turned out, but the problem for the Sri Lankan team was that they did not get too many runs. And of course, they were usurped by a fine chase by Sherwin Ganga, who changed things around for his side with his 15-ball 39 that had four boundaries and a couple of sixes.
To give you the context of how well Ganga batted, he came on when the side needed 58 off six overs in a game where Ruhuna had scored only 138 and smashed the runs for the win. Due credit to Darren Bravo as well after he locked up his natural game in the closet and brought about a more refrained approach that helped Ganga in showing his aggression.
Earlier, Ruhuna’s innings was rocked early when they lost three wickets for 26 before Dinesh Chandimal and Janaka Gunaratne rescued them. Chandimal, fresh from being dropped from the Sri Lankan side, went on to score a half-century as Ruhuna got to 93/3 in the 15th over. Another collapse saw them lose four wickets in the final over that allowed them to post only 138.
In the second match of the day, Kolkata were propelled to a smashing start through Manvinder Bisla, who scored a 32-ball 45. And at 73 without loss in the tenth over, it looked like the Knight Riders were away towards a 150-plus total. It was the middle-order blip that saw the Auckland Aces restrict them to only 121, with Kyle Mills picking up a couple of wickets as well.
In reply, the Aces lost an early wicket but the chase followed a similar pattern. After Martin Guptill’s duck, the side recovered through Jimmy Adams and Lou Vincent to get to 60 in the ninth before they collapsed as well. Having to score only 62 in the last 11 overs with nine wickets standing, the Aces were pegged back by the Kolkata spinners.
Yusuf Pathan got two wickets off successive balls, while slow-medium bowler Rajat Bhatia ended with 1/14 off four overs to win Kolkata the game. Aces needed to score 11 off the last over and four off the last ball but fell a couple behind.