Toss: Faisalabad Wolves won the toss and elected to bat first.

Teams: 

Faisalabad Wolves: Ammar Mahmood, Ali Waqas, Khurram Shehzad, Asif Ali, Misbah-ul-Haq, Imran Khalid, Mohammad Salman, Saeed Ajmal, Ehsan Adil, Asad Ali, Samiullah Khan

Otago Volts: NT Broom, HD Rutherford, BB McCullum, DC de Boorder, AJ Redmond, JDS Neesham, NL McCullum, IG Butler, N Wagner, NB Beard, JM McMillan 


Faisalabad Wolves seemed to approach their Champions League T20 campaign with a positive outlook but that did't last too long as Ammar Mahmood was caught by Broom for 5(4). Ali Waqas was then taken out of his misery by the same bowler. He made 4 runs from 11 balls. In came Asif Ali who struck three fours before holding out to a controversial take by Beard. He departed for 14(12). 

The stage was now setup for Misbah-ul-Haq, the man of crisis, as he joined Khurram Shehzad. Misbah didn’t take any time to get his eye in and started off from the word go. Misbah-ul-Haq took a liking to Nathan McCullum with 3 SIXES off him and a four, which prompted his brother to take him out of the attack. 

Khurram Shehzad was out in the next over trying to loft Butler. He scored 27 runs. In his next over, he cleaned Misbah-ul-Haq up, who scored a brisk 46 from mere 36 balls. Imran Khalid got hold of a couple of fours, but was sent on his way by Neesham. Out came Mohammad Salman who struck a couple of fours in the next over off Wagner. He accumulated 10 runs before departing to the same bowler. Ehsan Adil was run out in the last over for 4. Saeed Ajmal remained unbeaten on 9(5). Faisalabad Wolves scored 95 runs in their last 10 overs to put up a fighting total of 139/8 on the board. 

Fall Of Wickets:

1-5 (Ammar Mahmood, 1.1 overs) 
2-12 (Ali Waqas, 3.2 overs) 
3-34 (Asif Ali, 7.2 overs) 
4-95 (Khurram Shehzad, 14.6 overs)
5-108 (Misbah-ul-Haq, 16.6 overs)
6-117 (Imran Khalid, 17.6 overs)
7-127 (Mohammad Salman, 18.5 overs) 
8-136 (Ehsan Adil, 19.4 overs)



Otago Volts didn’t have a dream start to their campaign either as Broom was sent packing by Samiullah Khan Niazi off the second ball. It was the sheer power of Brendon McCullum and Rutherford that got them going. Rutherford was finally caught by Asif Ali off Saeed Ajmal for a rapid 25(12). De Boorder took some time in setting in, while his partner, McCullum was going along nicely. 

Both of them targeted Ehsan Adil and managed 17 runs off his over, which proved out to be the turning point of the match. In the next over, Asad Ali dropped a precious chance of Brendon McCullum on the boundary. McCullum brought up his run-a-ball fifty in the over off Imran Khalid, which cost 15 runs. The match had gone out of the Wolves hands by then. McCullum continued on his onslaught and dispatched Asad Ali to all parts of the park. That over brought up 15 runs for the Volts. He finished the match off in the 18th over with ease to hand the Volts a comprehensive 8-wicket win. McCullum and de Brooder remained not out on 83 and 30 respectively. 

Fall Of Wickets: 

1-0 (Broom, 0.2 overs) 
2-41 (Rutherford, 5.2 overs)

A star spangled team line-up for the Wolves was no guarantee of success and with McCullum's brilliance, it proved to be so. Wolves have 2 more games to play in this round and its the batsmen who will need to put in the hard yards to ensure that they don't come back empty handed.

  Discuss!