Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS) Away from home, two Australian cricketing rivals, New South Wales Blues and Victoria Bushrangers, will challenge each other on Indian turf when they turn out for the first semi-final of the Champions League Twenty20 at Ferozeshah Kotla here Wednesday.
With a host of international stars in their ranks, the match is expected to provide a thriller of Twenty20 cricket, something that has been sorely missed in the tournament so far.

On cards, the Blues look a slightly stronger outfit than Victoria, but make no mistake that the latter can raise their game by notches when it comes to facing the Blues.

The two teams have played three Twenty20s and one limited over before coming to India and the result stands at 2-2.

“It has been good traditional rivalry going on for a long time, specially in the last couple of weeks as we were training together,” New South Wales captain Katich said Tuesday.

Bushrangers captain Cameron White agreed with Katich.

“But it will be a different experience playing on a neutral venue,” said White.

The low and slow Kotla track has drawn lot of criticism for not being ideal for the format, but Katich felt otherwise.

“It is an advantage because we have played on this surface and know what sort of total is defendable. But Twenty 20 is an unpredictable game. Its always difficult for the team batting second.”

Both Australian teams expect the Delhi crowd to cheer for them.

“We have Brett Lee playing for us. He is very popular in India and we expect the crowd to cheer for us,” said Katich.

The Blues boast of a strong line-up and have been the dominant side in the tournament. Their only loss came in the Super Eight stage against Trinidad and Tobago when Keiron Pollard’s sensational batting took the game away from them.

Apart from that, the Blues had got their act together in all the departments.

Openers Philip Hughes and David Warner have been exceptional while skipper Simon Katich and others have chipped in with the bat regularly.

The bowling has been razor sharp with Lee leading the attack and looking as menacing as he has ever been. In Stuart Clark, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Hauritz and Moises Henriques, the Blues have the variety in its attack to defend any total.

Bushrangers might not have many big names, but have gelled well as a team. Their success has been based on strong bowling. Andrew McDonald and Clint McKay are up in the list of wicket-takers.