Hobart Heroes v Brisbane City Cyclones, APL, Hobart
Vettori and Ganguly craft second Hobart victory
The Bulletin by Jamie Alter
September 28, 2009
Hobart Heroes 141 for 3 (Ganguly 85, Ponting 47) beat Brisbane City Cyclones 140 all out (Vettori 3-16, Sreesanth 3-28) by seven wickets
Indian opener Sourav Ganguly has hit back at critics with a tremendous half-century to lead the Hobart Heroes to a commanding seven wicket victory over Brisbane City in their APL fixture at Bellerive Oval. Ganguly - who kept his spot in the side ahead of young WA batsman Shaun Marsh - hit four sixes in his innings of 85 in just 57 balls as the hosts cruised to the modest target of 141 set by Brisbane who were crippled by a disciplined bowling effort from Hobart.
Brisbane captain Andrew Symonds won the toss and elected to bat only to lose opener Michael Dighton early as he was trapped LBW by a full ball from seamer Shanthakumaran Sreesanth for just one. However a 53-run stand between Chris Gayle and Owais Shah threatened to start to take the game away from the hosts before Shah was run out by a moment of brilliant from Paul Collingwood at backward point to trigger a monumental collapse.
In fact it was the next over that saw Andrew Symonds dismissed by Daniel Vettori's first delivery as Ricky Ponting's gamble to keep a slip in paid off as Symonds nicked a quicker delivery from the Kiwi spinner to VVS Laxman at first slip who took his first APL catch. With the very next ball Ponting was involved again as he ran the dangerous Chris Gayle out for 33 to reduce the Cyclones to 4-72.
Brisbane would never recover from the flurry of wickets as Paul Collingwood removed Kiwi batsman Ross Taylor for 22 whilst Vettori struck twice in two balls to dismiss the aggressive Mark Boucher (7) and Australian all-rounder Beau Casson (0) as the Cyclones slipped further to 7-111. West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo again came to the rescue for the Cyclones with a mature innings of 26 in 29 balls before Sreesanth (3-28) and Collingwood (2-30) finished the innings up for just 140.
VVS Laxman was keen to make a good impression in his first innings for Hobart before he fell for just one in nine deliveries to a swinging ball from RP Singh which cramped the normally fluent batsman for room and ballooned to Owais Shah at mid-wicket. The Cyclones would need similar breakthroughs early to chip away at the powerful Hobart top-order but these never came as Ganguly and Ponting compiled a match-winning 123-run stand for the second wicket.
For two men normally at loggerheads, the pair looked unstoppable as Brett Dorey and Beau Casson toiled away after Mitchell Johnson and RP Singh's earlier spells came to an end. Ganguly raced past his maiden APL fifty before racing to 85 with eight fours and four sixes before he knicked a quicker ball from all-rounder Gayle. Ponting, however, was more reserved in his innings as he struck just three boundaries out of his 47 runs before having a rush of blood and top-edging a pull against an Andrew Symonds half-tracker.
The Heroes would have no trouble knocking over the last four runs as Mike Hussey (4*) and Rohit Sharma (3*) made sure the hosts made it to the target without any further loss to secure the two points and claim their second victory.
Jamie Alter is a staff writer at Cricinfo
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