2122dThe Report by Siddarth Ravindran

Williamson ton crushes Cobras

Kane Williamson showed off his increasing proficiency in the format with a maiden T20 century as Cobras were overwhelmed in a rain-hit game

Match Centre

Statistics

Best performances - Batsmen

KS Williamson
KS Williamson
101(49) 8x4 - 5x6
Control %76%
  • Productive Shot
  • flick
  • 21 runs
  • 0x4 - 1x6
14 14 9 8 12 14 18 12
AP Devcich
67(46) 8x4 - 1x6
Control %72%
  • Productive Shot
  • flick
  • 17 runs
  • 2x4 - 0x6
16 8 3 6 6 5 11 12

Best performances - Bowlers

CK Langeveldt
O4
M0
R27
W2
Eco6.75
RHB
OFFLEG
1W
1W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF
VD Philander
VD Philander
O4
M0
R39
W2
Eco9.75
RHB
OFFLEG
1W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF
1W

Match Details

Toss

Cape Cobras , elected to field first

Player Of The Match

Season

Hours of play (local time)

20.00 start, First Session 20.00-21.20, Interval 21.20-21.40, Second Session 21.40-23.00

Match days

19 September 2014 - night match (20-over match)

Twenty20 debut

Reserve Umpire

Match Referee

Points

Northern Districts 4, Cape Cobras 0

Scorer: Sanjay Murari | Commentator: Karthik Krishnaswamy

11.25pm And that is that, all you cricket fans of the universe. This match is over, forever, and it's never coming back. But there's still a long way to go in this tournament, and make sure you tune into our ball-by-ball coverage of all the matches. Until then, it's ta ta from me and Sanjay.

11.20pm Presentation time. Justin Ontong: "Fantastic opening stand, and a fantastic innings by Kane, put us on the back foot right from the start. It didn't help that we didn't take the half chances. We just need to go back to the drawing board and come back strongly next game."

Daniel Flynn: "Bit of luck with the weather, we just managed to get the overs in, but fantastic innings from Kane. It was great to watch. They [openers] did it in the last game as well, and long may it continue. We tried to be calculated, and we have been fortunate in the last few games that it's gone our way."

Kane Williamson is the man of the match. "It's nice to contribute like that today," he says, modestly. "We had a bit of luck at the start with balls falling into gaps, and it was great batting with Anton. I suppose it has to be [my standout T20 innings] and it was nice to bat through. Always trying to work on my shots and hit the balls into the gaps and adapting to different conditions. It's great to have four wins in a row and play at the same ground and be reasonably familiar with it."

11.15pm The players are lining up in a narrow corridor under the stands to shake hands. It's still raining pretty heavily here, and I assume they'll do the presentation indoors, whenever that is.

Ankur: "No doubt about the game at hand, but I remain largely unconvinced by use of DL in T20 encounters. Would it have predicted the last 2 games, KKR 51/5 or KXI 51/4 would easily win the game?" It isn't a predictive tool, Ankur. All it does is reflect the match situation at the time of the stoppage.

11.10pm And that is that. The match has been called off, and Northern Knights have won by 33 runs (D/L method). Thanks for alerting me, everyone!

The result was never in doubt, even if they had managed to get the players back on the field. Knights have outplayed Cobras today. It definitely looked like one team had played three matches almost back-to-back at this stadium and the other was both rusty and unused to the conditions. Williamson was unstoppable, Devcich and Watling did their bit, and a lot of the Cobras bowling was very ordinary.

11.00pm I know you won't want to hear this, but we are as clueless as you are about the situation at the ground at the moment. We'll update you as soon as we have any information. And feel free to point me to any news you may chance upon on Twitter or suchlike.

SachIsLife: "Also, I have been wanting to ask this. How does Ish Sodhi, with a FC bowling average of 47 get to play for NZ? What am i missing?"

Well, having watched him bowl during the Test series in West Indies, Sodhi is one of those legspinners who bowls quite a few good, threatening-looking deliveries but isn't very consistent with his direction. He's still only 21, and New Zealand look at him as a long-term prospect. He definitely looks promising to me, but yeah, it isn't ideal for a legspinner to be learning his craft at the highest level. Given the depth (or lack of depth) of spin talent in New Zealand, this is the best they can do. I hope he can fulfil his potential.

10.45pm The official CLT20 account has tweeted this (more than ten minutes ago, actually): "The players are off the field and the groundsmen are at work...This rain has turned heavy with a stroke of lightning in the sky."

Northern Knights, meanwhile, have retweeted someone named Anand Subramaniam, who is at the ground: "The heavens have well and truly opened up...One section of the crowd going bonkers with their dance moves."

Riad: "All went wrong to COB as they have already seen rain is coming. Why they are not aware of D/L ? The way Robin and Amla batted , it looks like they are not chasing, just to build the innings after 1st wicket. very poor thinking."

You're forgetting that batsmen can only play as well as the bowlers allow them to. That's true even in T20, if to a smaller extent. Boult and Southee were swinging it around and bowling pretty well, so it's been difficult for the Cobras batsmen.

stranger: "How many overs should be completed before the match can be decided on Duckworth Lewis?" Five overs, so we already have a completed game if rain washes this out.

Kashif Naseer: "I was about to say that it seems like scott kuggeleijn is the only weekness in knights bowling line up but then he immediately took Amla's wicket :D My comment surely was lucky for him :)" Are you sure you were going to say that?

10.25pm and on come the covers. The groundstaff are positively rushing in. The rain's become steadily heavier over the last four or five balls. The D/L par score at this point is 84, and Cobras are nowhere near it. Wait. The electronic scoreboard is saying the D/L par score is 77. Not sure which figure is correct.

7.2
1
Sodhi to Ramela, 1 run, length ball, and he goes on the back foot to work that away from the stumps towards deep midwicket
7.1
0
Sodhi to Ramela, no run, short, wide, but he can't quite time that cut. Chops it down towards backward point

Sodhi comes on to bowl some legspin

END OF OVER:
7 | 5 Runs | COBRA: 43/2 (164 runs required from 13 overs, RR: 6.14, RRR: 12.61)

  • Omphile Ramela3 (3b)
  • Robin Peterson17 (24b)
  • Scott Styris2-0-13-0
  • Scott Kuggeleijn1-0-11-1
6.6
1
Styris to Ramela, 1 run, full-toss outside off, and he punches this down to long-off
6.5
1
Styris to Peterson, 1 run, on the pads again, worked away wide of mid-on

Just as I said that, it's gotten a little heavier

6.4
1
Styris to Ramela, 1 run, slower ball again, another one of those offcutters, and he clips it away towards wide mid-on

There's a steady drizzle, but it's very mild. Just a spray

6.3
1
Styris to Peterson, 1 run, another slower ball, on middle and leg, tucked away to the left of midwicket

Amla in the chase

109

Amla's strike rate while chasing in T20s. He scores at 132 while batting first

New highs

206

What Northern Knights scored tonight - their biggest total in T20s, and the biggest in Raipur in 17 innings

New high

79

Williamson's previous highest in T20s, against Canterbury, this is now his highest

Opening high

130

The previous highest for the opening wicket against Cape Cobras, this partnership is now the highest

Quick

25

Balls taken by Williamson for this fifty - the fastest of his five T20 fifties

Opening lows

21

Innings since the last fifty-plus opening partnership against Cape Cobras before this one, 126 by Lions (SA)

Opening problem

174

Runs scored by Devcich in 10 T20 innings in 2014, fifth-lowest among 62 openers (min 10 inns)

Champions League Twenty20

Group A
TeamMWLPTNRR
KKR440160.716
CSK421100.945
PS4228-0.038
Lions4126-0.051
DOLPH4040-1.338
Group B
TeamMWLPTNRR
PBKS440162.13
HH431121.193
BR4134-0.256
COBRA4134-0.955
ND4134-2.667
Qualifying Group
TeamMWLPTNRR
ND330122.08
Lions3218-0.065
MI3124-0.064
Expre3030-2.033