Lions secure semi spot, CSK and MI out
by Ant Sims 20 October 2012, 16:53
The Lions beat Yorkshire by five wickets at the Wanderers on Saturday in order to secure their semifinal spot in the Karbonn Smart Champions League T20.
Full Scorecard: Lions v Yorkshire
They join the Sydney Sixers from Group B, meaning the remainder of the matches from this group are all dead rubbers.
The Lions stuttered and stumbled in pursuit of 132, but managed to get there in the end with four balls still to spare.
The home side won the toss and put Yorkshire in to bat and Andrew Gale and Phil Jacques got off to a slow, but steady start. The pair put on 54 runs for the opening partnership before Gale fell as he tried to slog sweep over midwicket but found the edge instead and Dwaine Pretorius got the breakthrough.
Joe Root followed shortly after Gale, falling victim to Aaron Phangiso as the youngster tries to sweep for a boundary, but he swept it straight to Sohail Tanvir at deep fine leg instead and Yorkshire were looking a bit shaky at 60-2 after 9.5 overs.
Phil Jacques - who had looked in good form - was the next to fall as he tried to slog sweep off Alviro Petersen and ended up missing his shot completely. Jacques was dismissed for 31 off 29 and Yorkshire were looking just a little bit shaky before Garry Ballance and Adam Lyth combined for a quick 33-run partnership to help steady the ship just a little bit again.
Ballance then fell as yet another Yorkshire player tried to sweep but failed and Phangiso picked up his second wicket as he finished with figures of 4-0-23-2. Lyth also couldn't last much longer and after chipping in with 21 off 17, he succumbed to Chris Morris right after the bowler was whacked for a six.
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Yorkshire looked in all sorts of trouble at 111-5 after 17 overs and the lower order failed to fire as the visitors stuttered through the end of their innings losing two more wickets to swing the odds in the home side’s favour as they posted 131-7 in 20 overs.
Petersen fell early on in the Lions' chase as he went over a wider ball and edged through the keeper for an easy catch as Oliver Hannon-Dalby, who came into the side to replace the injured Moin Ashraf, picked up his first wicket.
Gulam Bodi soon followed as he got struck plumb on his pads and Yorkshire looked like they might just put up a bit of a fight. Veteran Neil McKenzie couldn't stuck around for too long either and he was trapped leg before by Azeem Rafiq.
With the game constantly swinging and rain linger, the Lions needed to relieve a little bit of the pressure and they did thanks to brisk knock from Quinton de Kock who hit 32 off 35 - including two sixes and two fours - before he was caught behind off the bowling of Iain Wardlaw - the bowler who became in to replace injured Ryan Sidebottom.
Rafiq and Hannon-Dalby managed two tidy overs between them as the 14th and the 15th over yielded just one run each and Yorkshire had just a little bit of hope. Adil Rashid was brought back into the attack and ruined the visitors' party as Pretorius whacked a six to long-off and four through extra cover and the Lions were right back on top in a game in which the action was seemingly never ending.
Pretorious was dismissed in the 17th over, caught when he sliced Patterson to sweeper cover and with 23 runs needed off 18 balls, the Lions still looked in control.
The 18th over was bowled by Wardlaw, yielding just three runs, Yorkshire might have started to be believe again. Jean Symes, however, had other ideas and as Hannon-Dalby returned to bowl the 19th over he whacked a six and four to swing the equation back into favour of the Lions.
Patterson was given the highly unlikely task of defending six off the final over and Symes hit the first two balls of the over for four to guide his side to victory and into the semifinals of the competition.
LIONS: Gulam Bodi, Alviro Petersen (capt), Quinton de Kock, Neil McKenzie, Jean Symes, Thami Tsolekile (wk), Dwaine Pretorious, Chris Morris, Sohail Tanvir, Aaron Phangiso, Dirk Nannes
YORKSHIRE: Andrew Gale (capt), Phil Jaques, Joe Root, Adam Lyth, Gary Ballance, Adil Rashid, Dan Hodgson (wk), Azeem Rafiq, Steve Patterson, Iain Wardlaw, Oliver Hannon-Dalby
