Following Hobart Hurricanes' first win of the tournament, opener Ben Dunk praised the match-winning contribution of Aiden Blizzard, who scored an unbeaten 48-ball 78 to help chase down 186 against Cape Cobras.
"It was a pretty special innings from Aiden there. He came at a crucial juncture in the middle overs and got himself in," Dunk told clt20.com. "It was a nice wicket to bat on, but you still have to play yourself in. He did that, thought things through, ran well between the wickets and then there was some really clean striking at the end against quality bowlers. This is a great win for all the boys and we have now got some great momentum going forward."
Dunk laid the platform with a 35-ball 54, before the offspinner Sybrand Engelbrecht brought Cobras back with wickets in three successive overs - including that of Dunk, who holed out to long-off - to have Hurricanes 121 for 4 in the 15th over. Blizzard steered Hurricanes home, but Dunk said the team would have to work on its batting against spin in the middle overs.
"Their offspinner bowled really well and put the brakes on our scoring," Dunk said. "With left-handers in the middle, we didn't handle it that well and me throwing away my wicket wasn't very helpful either. Going forward, hopefully, we will handle the middle overs better and play spin better than we did today. But at the end of the day we chased 185 with an over to spare. So we are a pretty happy unit."
Having taken their first points of the tournament, Dunk said Hurricanes would need to maintain their momentum to reach the knockouts.
"We didn't put up our best performance the other night against Kings XI Punjab but we still pushed them till the end," he said. "So we knew we weren't too far behind our A game and tonight's performance was a bit of a credit for that. We need to maintain this standard for the remaining two league games and get through to the knockouts."