A HALF-century from Yorkshire’s Gary Ballance was not enough to stop his side slipping to defeat against Chennai Super Kings as Jason Gillespie’s side exited the Champions League Twenty20 competition without registering a victory. The four-wicket win for the Indian Premier League side came in a dead-rubber fixture as neither team could qualify from Group B following disappointing tournaments.
Ballance’s knock looked like it would be good enough to inspire Yorkshire to their maiden victory in the competition as he made 58 from 44 balls, smashing five sixes in the process, but Chennai chased down the 141-run target.
The 22-year-old came to the crease with the White Rose county struggling on 43 for three but hung around until the final over when he was stumped trying to steal a single from a wide delivery.
Captain Andrew Gale (23) and David Miller (28) also made decent contributions, with the latter racking up a 78-run partnership with Ballance as Yorkshire closed on 140 for six.
Chennai’s reply started badly as Francois du Plessis, the fifth-highest run-scorer in the competition to date, was caught off the bowling of Steven Patterson in the second over with only a single to his name.
Murali Vijay and Suresh Raina both scored at just over a run-a-ball but were both snared by Oliver Hannon-Dalby, although captain Raina managed to score 31.
The Indian Premier League runners-up then turned up the heat on the Yorkshire bowling attack.
Subramaniam Badrinath and MS Dhoni were determined to lead Chennai to their second victory in the competition and started to score runs quickly. Badrinath cracked 48 runs from 38 balls before being clean-bowled by Iain Wardlaw in the 16th over.
Dhoni had entered the fray with Chennai on 74 for three and with the outcome of the match still hanging in the balance. But the India skipper’s quick-scoring 31 swung the game in favour of the Super Kings, and when he was bowled by Wardlaw it was Wriddhiman Saha who picked up the winning run off the next ball.
In the day’s other game Sydney Sixers maintained their perfect start to the Champions League Twenty20 tournament as they eased to a 12-run victory over Mumbai Indians in Durban.
Sydney had already qualified for the semi-finals after winning their opening three group matches and had the luxury of resting Dominic Thornely and Shane Watson.
The Sixers posted 136 for seven in their 20 overs before Mumbai limped to 124 for eight in return.
Michael Lumb scored heavily during the opening overs but could not build on a good start and was caught off the bowling of Lasith Malinga for 28.
Nic Maddinson then smashed 27 off just 13 deliveries before he was run-out and it was left to Steven Smith (41) who scored at a run-a-ball to push Sydney’s score forward but after Malinga struck again the Sixers were always going to struggle.
Captain Brad Haddin and Moises Henriques were both out for second-ball ducks.
Mumbai openers Dwayne Smith (26) and Sachin Tendulkar (22) started well but both fell to the bowling of Henriques in the ninth over.
It was downhill from that point on for Mumbai with only Dinesh Karthik (18) reaching double figures until Harbhajan Singh cracked 22 from just nine balls.
Harbhajan remained at the crease but could not guide Mumbai to their required total in their final outing of this year’s competition. (PA Sport)