Scorchers Down Lions, CSK Progress

To make the semi-finals of the 2014 Champions League Twenty20, after huffing and puffing their way to 124 for 6, Lahore Lions needed to keep Perth Scorchers to 78 or less, and came close by having them at 62 for 7, but Mitchell Marsh and Brad Hogg denied them with a punchy partnership of 68. In what proved an engrossing low-scorer dominated by spin, and at a venue that has witnessed a few famous spin-induced collapses in Test cricket, Lions threatened to smother Scorchers by taking pace off the ball but ended up losing thanks to the combined efforts of a 22-year old expected to make his Test debut for Australia in a few weeks, and a 43-year-old who has found an extended lease of his athletic life thanks to T20.

Defending a poor total, which came from the poorer depths of 11 for 4 thanks to a solid half-century from their most consistent batsman of the tournament, Saad Nasim, Pakistan’s domestic T20 champions applied the squeeze but ran out of fire against Hogg and Marsh. The crucial hit came off the bat of Hogg, who lofted a full toss from Adnan Rasool over long-on to take Scorchers to 80 in the 14th over, thereby ending Lions’ campaign and ensuring Chennai Super Kings would join Kolkata Knight Riders from Group A in the knock-outs.

Lions fought hard through their phalanx of slow bowlers on a spicy surface. Hafeez accounted for Craig Simmons (0) and Ashton Agar (5) in a tremendous effort of 4-0-8-2, not allowing the batsmen room to work with; Mustafa Iqbal bowled Cameron Bancroft (22) and had Ashton Turner spooning to mid-on; Nasim came on and with his second ball got Hilton Cartwright stumped with a ripping leg break. At 62 for 7, Scorchers were staring at defeat.

Enter Hogg, however, who smacked 16 off his first eight balls faced to leave Lions stunned. The blows came during the 14th over bowled by Rasool, with the 43-year-old Hogg going over extra cover, backward of point and into the sight screen. Three balls, 14 runs, all over for Lions. A brief celebration done, Hogg and Marsh got down to finishing off their chase. Marsh finished 63 from 38 balls, and Hogg collected 28 off 19.

The root cause of Lions’ exit was a shoddy batting performance, second to when they were bowled out for 98 against Northern Knights during the Qualifiers. Few teams recover from the loss of four wickets for 11 runs inside four overs, and then losing half their side by ten. Joel Paris picked up two wickets either side of a surprise rain interruption in an opening over that spanned 45 minutes, and stand-in captain Marsh bounced out two wickets in as many overs to leave Lions hemorrhaging.

The match began with excitement, as Paris removed Nasir Jamshed third ball, flicking to the lone fielder in the deep on the legside. No sooner had the ball found its way into Hogg’s palms at deep square leg, rain slipped through the sunlight to send the teams off the field for almost 30 minutes. Three balls into the resumption, Paris went straight through Umar Siddiq’s wild heave - the opener came in for Ahmed Shehzad, out with a sore throat - and finished the first over with two wickets for two runs. That became 3 for 2 when Marsh brought himself on and picked up Hafeez for 0, the Lions’ skipper chopping a short ball onto his stumps. Wahab Riaz sauntered in at No 5 ahead of Umar Akmal, Lions’ match-winner with the bat from their last game, but he lasted four balls before finding long-on off Marsh, for 0. Akmal (28) added 48 with Nasim, who found an ally in Mohammad Saeed to double the score from 54 for 5, but ultimately Lions did not have enough runs to script a famous win.

Brief scores: Perth Scorchers 130 for 7 in 19 overs (Mitchell Marsh 69*, Brad Hogg 28*) beat Lahore Lions 124 for 6 in 20 overs (Saad Nasim 69*, Joel Paris 3/22) by three wickets