Otago Volts and James Neesham won't be forgotten soon

Otago Volts

The real surprise package of the 2013 Champions League T20, thus far, has been the New Zealand side Otago Volts. For a side which was thought to be there only for making the numbers, the Volts – having to play in the qualifying stage – virtually walked into the main tournament, by beating all their opponents, including the IPL side Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Coming into the tournament the Volts were in a 10 match winning streak, which they duly extended to 14 in the CLT20 before being humbled by the Rajasthan Royals. The streak was the second longest in T20 cricket, behind the 25 match winning streak of the Pakistani side Sialkot Stallions, and their unbeaten run extended to 16 matches during the tournament.

During the CLT20 the Volts were high on octane and their batsmen were low on mercy towards the bowlers. In their first match of the main tournament, Volts’ batsmen hammered the Perth Scorchers bowling to amass a score of 242, which is the highest total by a team in the Champions League.

Broom’s 117 was a scintillating knock and his 48 ball 128 run stand with Ten Doeschate of Netherlands, saw some of the most exciting cricket played in this year’s CLT20.

The 62 runs victory and the form of their batsmen gave the Kiwi side the required momentum to face the IPL champion Mumbai Indians. It was to be a match-up of raw-power and hitting strength, as both sides were packed with power hitters who could decimate any bowling line-up.

But rain proved to be a dampener as the match was abandoned without a ball being bowled and the wash-out came back to daunt the Volts later in their bid to make it to the semi-finals.

It is not often that one would associate a Kiwi side with power hitting. It is the technical aspects of batsmanship – such as finesse, placement and timing – that we have been used to seeing in most of their batsmen, barring a few exceptions of the likes of Chris Cairns.

But this side is packed with batsmen of the likes of the McCullum brothers, Rutherford, Ten Doeschate, Broom and Neesham, who could clear any ground in the world.

With their winning streak coming to an end with that wash-out, the Volts took on the Highveld Lions in their next match. The match proved to be a nail-biter, one of a kind that would make both the organisers and the spectators happy, as it went into a super over. After the scores were level in the main match, the match was taken into a super-over, but even the one over eliminator could not throw up a winner. The volts took away the points by virtue of hitting more boundaries – 21 to Lions’ 20.

The tie, though, did not help their net run-rate, which proved to be their downfall in the end. But at one stage it looked like they would fall well short of the target, until James Neesham played a blinder. With 4 sixes he scored 52 runs, at more than two runs a ball, but he could not take his side home as he lost strike during the last two balls of the innings.

In the super-over that followed, Neesham held his nerve with the ball to pull out an incredible tie for his side.

Volts’ next match against the Royals was to be a huge test for them as it was in the fortress of the Rajastan side, where they have not lost a match since the beginning of the IPL this year. Either the unbeaten streak of the Volts or the winning home streak of the Royals had to come to an end, but unfortunately for the Volts, their batting failed them as they could only manage a less than competitive total of 139.

Their bowlers though, led by Neesham who took 3 wickets, put up a fight and stretched the game till the end. Even though it proved to be too little too late, it gave them a chance of making it to the semi-finals by virtue of their net run-rate.

But the Mumbai side proved to be too good for the Scorchers in the last league game of the group and that eventually knocked out the Volts.

After a poor debut in the inaugural CLT20, where they lost both their matches, and then failing to make it to the subsequent editions, the Volts have come a long way in this year’s Champions League.

Though they could not quite notch up a fairy tale ending, they played some of the most exciting cricket this year and have certainly made a few fans. And it is not that often that the fielding of a New Zealand side can be overlooked, but the exploits of their batsmen just over-shadowed the other two departments.

With his exploits in the CLT20, Neesham has managed to put himself in reckoning for the IPL auctions scheduled next year. With his powerful batting, handy bowling and athletic fielding, he could certainly find a buyer.