For the past two weeks many cricket fans would have
said they are watching the Champions League where a team scored a 150+ and the
other team chased it down with 15 balls to spare or was bundled out for 90/100
odd runs and the normal people would have been scratching their heads after
hearing this. Because all they know is that Champions League refers to the UEFA
Champions League (football). Well the Champions League T20 in cricket is very
similar to the football version where the domestic champions participate in a
tournament over a fortnight to be crowned “CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS”.
The Sixth edition of the tournament was sponsored
by OPPO and the matches were scheduled to be played in India itself instead of
South Africa. As usual the co-owners of the league BCCI, CA and CSA had their
teams directly in the round-robin (MI being the exception) and the other
domestic champions had to fight out through the qualifiers to take part in the
round-robin. The teams that took part in the Qualifiers are the Northern
District Knights from New Zealand, Lahore Lions from Pakistan, Southern Express
from Sri Lanka and Mumbai Indians from India. The other domestic champions that
took part are the Hobart Hurricanes and the Perth Scorchers from Australia,
Cape Cobras and Sunfoil Dolphins from the Rainbow nation and the Barbados
Tridents from the Caribbean islands.
After the
qualifier round the two teams that progressed on to the next round was the
Knights and the Lions. The Knights entered unbeaten whereas the Lions had a sole
defeat to the Knights. And then the action shifted to the main draw. In the
main draw there were the Indian teams which used the best of the home advantage
and remained unbeaten by the overseas sides. The only Indian franchise to taste
defeat was the Chennai Super Kings and they lost to the domestic champions
Kolkata. The Kolkata and the Punjab franchises maintained a 100% win record in
the group stages. The Chennai franchise apart from their loss against the
Kolkata side bounced back with victories over Dolphins and the Scorchers and to
share the points along with the Lions after it was washed out. The Australian
teams fared better than the South African sides and the Tridents were hit with
a triple blow in their campaign as their most valuable 3 players chose to play
for the other teams. The Perth Scorchers showed some character when they pulled
off the matches from defeat where against the Dolphins by hitting the required
12 runs off 2 balls with success and chased 125 against the Lions after a
situation where they were 62/7. Aiden Blizzard provided some fire power at the
top order for the Hobart side which was dominant in the group stages having
bowlers with international experience. The Sunfoil Dolphins apart from the
match against the CSK were never at their best and the Cape Cobras had to win
the match only in the super over. The Tridents after losing the trio of
Pollard, Smith and Malik were feeling their absence in their batting order as
it was revolving around Jonathan Carter to score the runs. The teams that came
through the qualifiers had some consolation wins.
Overall, as history repeats the tournament proved
as the base for some players to be bought for Jackpot money in the upcoming IPL
auctions and leading that list would be Cameron Delport after his quick-fire
innings against the Super Kings. With the finals held today (CSK vs. KKR), the tournament
comes to an end where the Indian franchises have dominated and have made a
second all Indian CLT20 final for a consecutive second time (The last time it
was MI vs. RR where MI won the title).
STAY TUNED FOR MORE.....
Guha Karthikeyan
