The way New South Wales are gunning like crack-shot cowboys, it appears they will lift their second Champions League Twenty20 trophy, after winning the inaugural competition in Hyderabad, India, in 2009.
On Friday the 7th they will meet the star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore in that opponent’s home town.
RCB have a strong international line-up in skipper Daniel Vettori (New Zealand), Chris Gayle (West Indies), Tillakaratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka), AB deVilliers (South Africa) and Virat Kohli (India).
But New South Wales have a more gelled side. Led by Simon Katich, aged 36, they have youth and experience, all players from a single state of Australia.
Their adventurous batting line-up consists of David Warner, Shane Watson, Phil Hughes, Katich, Steven Smith, Moises Henriques, Ben Rohrer, Daniel Smith (wk), and Nick Maddison.
Their seam bowlers are Pat Cummins, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Watson. Cummins is just 18. Clark is almost twice his age.
Their spinners are Steven O’Keefe, Steven Smith, and Nathan Hauritz. All three can bat.
New South Wales is likely to reach the final and meet the winners of Mumbai Indians and Somerset. The squad is performing like a well-oiled machine, especially the way they outclassed the 2010 champions Chennai Super Kings by 46 runs on Tuesday.
Warner was spectacular as he smashed 135 unbeaten runs off 69 balls for a strike rate of 195.65, hitting 11 fours and eight sixes.
This is the highest individual score in the Champions League’s three-year history.
Warner swung as the left-handed batsman that he is, but switched to hook right-handed too, confusing the opponents.
His switcheroo technique was behind New South Wales’ total of 2-201 off 20 overs. He was brutal in his attack.
Michael Hussey opened the batting for CSK and top-scored with 37. But with steady bowling by O’Keefe (3-28) and two wickets each by Clark and Starc, they were dismissed for 155.
Warner was the worthy Man of the Match. So far he has scored 205 runs at 68.33 and needs 19 more runs to go past Jacques Kallis record of 223 runs this season.
A victory by New South Wales will augur well for Australia who is all set to start their tour of South Africa next week.
As has been said in the past, when New South Wales is strong, Australia is strong.
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