McCullum brothers guide Otago to 5-wicket win over Hyderabad in CLT20

Already through to the main draw, Otago Volts today continued their winning spree by notching up a comfortable five wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in an inconsequential qualifying match of the Champions League Twenty20 here.

Mohali: Already through to the main draw, Otago Volts on Friday continued their winning spree by notching up a comfortable five wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in an inconsequential qualifying match of the Champions League Twenty20 here. The McCullum brothers -- Nathan and Brendon, were the star performers for Otago as the New Zealand side produced a disciplined all-round performance to register their third win in the tournament so far.

Riding on Nathan`s crucial two-wicket burst, Otago first restricted the sunrisers to 143 for five after inviting the Hyderabad side to bat first. The New Zealand side then returned to overhaul the target with 22 balls to spare at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, courtesy Brendon`s blistering 39-ball 67-run innings. Brendon anchored the Otago innings, sharing 53 runs in 40 balls with opener Hamish Rutherford (27) for the second wicket and forging a 51-run stand with James Neesham (21) for the fourth wicket. Dale Steyn (2/13) was the only successful bowler for Hyderabad but the others could not emulate his performance as Otago went about their runchase with ease. Chasing 144 to win, Otago lost Neil Broom in 3rd over but Rutherford and Brendon steadied the innings. Brendon, who started his innings with a first-ball six off Darren Sammy in the fifth over, went on to hit sixes off Amit Mishra and K V Sharma early in his innings. But once opener Rutherford was dismissed in the 10th over, he concentrated more on building the innings and went bersek in the 15th over by Ishant Sharma as he picked up two sixes and two fours to amass 22 runs. Earlier, South African J P Duminy blasted a 38-ball 57 to help Sunrisers Hyderabad post a modest 143 for five in their stipulated 20 overs. Duminy cracked as many as seven boundaries in his innings and added a crucial 40 runs with Cameron White (25) first and then shared a 58-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Darren Sammy (26) to take Hyderabad close to 150. For Otago, Nathan McCullum (2/23) and Nick Beard (2/31) took two wickets each, while Neil Wagner (1/25) scalped one wicket. Although assured of a berth in the main draw, Hyderabad found the going tough for the first time in the tournament when they were asked to take the first strike by Otago skipper Brendon McCullum. Opener Parthiv Patel (12) was the first to be dismissed. The left-handed batsman fell while trying to play a cut shot off a quicker delivery bowled by Nathan McCullum and the batsman ended up losing his leg stump in the third over. After scoring two half-centuries in the last two matches, Shikhar Dhawan (12) failed to do the job today as he was sent packing by McCullum in the fifth over. Looking for a boundary, Dhawan danced down the pitch but hit the ball straight to Ryan ten Doeschate at mid-on as Hyderabad slipped to 25 for 2. First down batsman Biplab Samantray also could not stay long and he was done in by a wonderful catch by Michael Bracewell at the long-on boundary line. Hyderabad were reduced to 45 for 3 in eight overs. Duminy and White then tried to steady the innings and added 40 runs off 36 balls, before the latter was dismissed by Neil Wagner. Looking to play a drive, White was holed out by skipper Brendon McCullum at extra cover. Duminy then took the onus of taking his side to a respectable total and forged a 58-run partnership with Sammy (26). Sammy was dismissed in the last ball of the innings when, in pursuit of quick runs, he hit a Nick Beard delivery at long-off with Neil Broom making no mistake in taking the catch. PTI