Already through to the main draw, Otago Volts today continued their winning spree by notching up a comfortable five wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in an inconsequential qualifying match of the Champions League Twenty20 here.
The McCullum brothers -- Nathan and Brendon, were the star performers for Otago as the New Zealand side produced a disciplined all-round performance to register their third win in the tournament so far. Riding on Nathan's crucial two-wicket burst, Otago first restricted the sunrisers to 143 for five after inviting the Hyderabad side to bat first.
The New Zealand side then returned to overhaul the target with 22 balls to spare at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, courtesy Brendon's blistering 39-ball 67-run innings. Brendon anchored the Otago innings, sharing 53 runs in 40 balls with opener Hamish Rutherford (27) for the second wicket and forging a 51-run stand with James Neesham (21) for the fourth wicket. Dale Steyn (2/13) was the only successful bowler for Hyderabad but the others could not emulate his performance as Otago went about their runchase with ease.
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Chasing 144 to win, Otago lost Neil Broom in 3rd over but Rutherford and Brendon steadied the innings. Brendon, who started his innings with a first-ball six off Darren Sammy in the fifth over, went on to hit sixes off Amit Mishra and K V Sharma early in his innings. But once opener Rutherford was dismissed in the 10th over, he concentrated more on building the innings and went bersek in the 15th over by Ishant Sharma as he picked up two sixes and two fours to amass 22 runs.
Earlier, South African J P Duminy blasted a 38-ball 57 to help Sunrisers Hyderabad post a modest 143 for five in their stipulated 20 overs. Duminy cracked as many as seven boundaries in his innings and added a crucial 40 runs with Cameron White (25) first and then shared a 58-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Darren Sammy (26) to take Hyderabad close to 150. For Otago, Nathan McCullum (2/23) and Nick Beard (2/31) took two wickets each, while Neil Wagner (1/25) scalped one wicket.
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