Cape Town: Australia`s in-form Sydney Sixers start outright favourites but will have to guard against complacency when they take on spirited English qualifiers Yorkshire in their second Group B encounter of the Champions League Twenty20 here on Tuesday.
Big Bash champions Sydney defeated IPL runner-ups Chennai Super Kings to make a resounding start in the event on Sunday.
It was a clinical performance by Sydney in their lung-opener with the top half of their batting line-up playing its role to perfection.
The bowlers too did the job as was expected of them and given the all-round strength of the squad, it would not come as a surprise if they have it easy against Yorkshire.
Australia`s World Twenty20 Player of the Tournament -- all-rounder Shane Watson -- seems to be unstoppable while turning up for Sydney as well and was the second highest scorer last night with a 30-ball 46 besides taking a wicket with the ball.
Another all-rounder who made an impression against Chennai was Moises Henriques. He top-scored with a 49 and picked up three wickets with his medium pace -- an impressive effort effort that fetched him the Man of the Match trophy.
But young pacer Pat Cummins going for over 10 an over in the game would be a concern for Sydney.
Yorkshire, on the other hand, don`t have any big names to flaunt on paper but as a unit, the side impressed in its qualifying campaign by winning both the matches to ease into the main draw.
Middle-order batsman Gary Ballance impressed with an unbeaten 64 in the final qualifying match against Trinidad and Tobago but the top-order`s form remains a concern for Yorkshire.
The likes of Phil Jacques and Adil Rashid would be expected to continue better in the main event after failing to impress in the qualifiers.
Veteran pacer Ryan Sidebottom would spearhead the Yorkshire attack and he was in superb form picking up three wickets against T&T in four overs that cost just 13 runs.
Teams (from):
Sydney Sixers: Brad Haddin (c), Patrick Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Michael Lumb, Nic Maddinson, Nathan McCullum, Ian Moran, Peter Nevill, Stephen O?Keefe, Ben Rohrer, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Dom Thornely, Shane Watson.
Yorkshire: Andrew Gale (c), Moin Ashraf, Azeem Rafiq, Gary Ballance, Oliver Hannon-Dalby, Dan Hodgson, Phil Jaques, Adam Lyth, David Miller, Steven Patterson, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ryan Sidebottom, Iain Wardlaw, Eddie Wilson.
Match starts at 5 pm (IST).
PTI
First Published: Monday, October 15, 2012, 13:20