Auckland eliminated from CLT20

Go down to Perth in final group game; Delhi, Titans through to last-four.

Auckland Aces lost their final Group A match by 16 runs against Perth Scorchers to miss out on the semi-finals of the Champions League T20.

Aces needed to win to keep alive their hopes of progressing but finished on 124 for eight chasing a target of 141 against the already-eliminated Scorchers.

Left-arm seamer Michael Bates was named the man of the match for his spell of four for 34. Responding to a question about his secret to success in the match yesterday, Beer replied, “I basically tried to second-guess how they are trying to play me. The ball held up a little, and that worked really well for me.”

Auckland captain Gareth Hopkins was a disappointed man after the loss.

“The pitch was very tough to bat on,” said Hopkins. “The Perth boys made good use of the conditions and batted quite well. They scored 140 which I believe was very was gettable. They showed us how to bat on a slow wicket which is something we should have emulated in the chase.”

Perth skipper Marcus North expressed frustrations on a disappointing campaign.

“It’s been a frustrating campaign for us,” said North. “We were desperately close to winning in a couple of games and then one of our matches got washed out, so it was very frustrating indeed. Although, it was nice to finally win today. The playing conditions were good and it was a beautiful pitch. It played slower than what we thought at first but we adjusted well to the conditions and the team delivered.”

The result meant that Delhi Daredevils and Nashua Titans progressed to the last-four.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2012.