CENTURION, South Africa, CMC – Warriors of South Africa will meet Chennai Super Kings in today’s final of the Champions League Twenty20 after they marched to a convincing 30-run win over the highly-fancied South Australia Redbacks yesterday.
Playing in the second semi-final at SuperSport Park, Warriors fashioned a strong batting performance after opting for first knock and then produced a stingy bowling effort to restrict the Australians.
The South African side will now clash with the IPL champions Chennai at the New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg.
Captain Davy Jacobs stroked his third half-century of the cash-rich tournament to propel Warriors to a challenging 175 for six off their allotted 20 overs.
In reply, South Australia were stifled by miserly Warriors bowling and stumbled to 145 for seven, with Callum Ferguson top-scoring with 71.
Warriors were off to a horrid start when Ashwell Prince fell to the second ball of the game without scoring, edging a quick one from speedster Shaun Tait to Daniel Harris at first slip with the score on one.
Jacobs, who smashed 10 fours and a six off 41 balls, then put on a crucial 104 from 70 balls for the second wicket with Colin Igram (46) to rescue the innings.
When the right-handed Jacobs skied a return catch to Harris, wickets tumbled regularly and Warriors needed Mark Boucher’s 21-ball 25 and Nicky Boje’s cameo seven-ball, unbeaten 22 to reach their eventual score.
Left-armer Lonwabo Tsotsobe grabbed two early wickets as South Australia stumbled and stuttered at the start of their reply, slipping to 21 for two in the fourth over and then 60 for four in the 10th over.
Ferguson came to their aid, cracking eight fours and two sixes in a knock that required 49 balls as he shared a 73-run fifth wicket stand with Daniel Christian who laboured 23 balls over 19.
When Ferguson missed a sweep at Johan Botha and was lbw at 134 for five at the end of the 18th over, South Australia’s hopes evaporated.
