Saturday 29 October 2011

England beat Australia to top Group B



England have qualified for the quarter finals of the Hong Kong Sixes after defeating Australia by 3 wickets.

Aussie skipper Rhett Lockyear won the toss and he elceted to bat first. He and Craig Phillipson opened the batting and got their side off to a great start, taking 25 off of Darren Stevens' opening over. However, Tom Smith made the breakthrough with his first ball when he had Lockyear caught behind for 13. Rory Hamilton- Brown followed that up in the next over when he had fellow opener Phillipson caught by Smith for 23. Australia 45-2 in the third over.

Jason Floros and Scott Coyte got together in the middle and began to find the boundary at regular intervals, especially off Rikki Clarke's over, which went for 21. Josh Cobb, who replaced Peter Trego in the side, bowled the last over, which turned out to be a good one. He first had Floros caught by Clarke for a well made 25, and very next ball, he played a part in running out Jeremy Smith for a golden duck. Australia finished on 85-4 off their 5 overs.

With a change to the batting line up, Darren Stevens and Chris Read opened up for England. However, they got off to the worst possible start when the dangerous Stevens was caught and bowled by Coyte first ball of the innings. And, after hitting a 4 off his first ball, Josh Cobb was bowled for 4 in the same over and England were struggling at 4-2.

Rory Hamilton- Brown and Read came together at the crease and looked at ease at the crease. The Nottinghamshire wicket keeper played an exquisite innings, where he struck 4 sixes and 2 fours, when he had to retire on 32 off of just 8 deliveries. The skipper was joined by Rikki Clarke and continued to play well, until, with the score on 67, he was bowled for 17 by Jeremy Smith. However, with 5 extras coming off Smith's over, Clarke and new batsman Smith, needed just 6 to win off the final over, and they did it with ease, with 4 balls remaining in the innings.

After this result, England have finished top of Group B, and now play in the quarter finals tomorrow, looking to win their first Hong Kong Sixes since 2008.

Other results today:
Group A- Scotland (80-1) beat Woodworm All Stars (77-1) by 5 wickets
                Sri Lanka (119-0) beat New Zealand (75-4) by 44 runs
                Woodworm All Stars (102-1) beat Sri Lanka (92-2) by 10 runs

Group B- Bangladesh (101-0) beat Australia (97-1) by 6 wickets
               Ireland (88-3) beat England (82-0) by 6 runs

Group C- Hong Kong (92-3) beat Pakistan (87-6) by 3 wickets
                India (100-2) beat South Africa (95-3) by 5 runs
                Hong Kong (87-1) beat South Africa (85-3) by 5 wickets
                Pakistan (109-5) beat India (87-1) by 22 runs

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