Raipur: Hobart Hurricanes produced a commanding performance to beat Northern Knights by 86 runs in a Group B match to keep their hopes afloat in the Oppo Champions League Twenty20, here today.
Sent into bat, the Hurricanes rode on a brilliant half century from Aiden Blizzard and Shoaib Maik's quickfire 45 to score 178 for three before Ben Hilfenhaus (3/14) came up with a lethal opening spell to derail the Knights' chase.
Chasing the challenging total, the Knights' innings never got going as they lost wickets at regular intervals.
After opener Anton Devcich fell to Joe Mennie, it was Hilfenhaus who wreaked the Knights' chase picking up three wickets in a span of four overs, two of which came in the third over.
Hilfenhaus first had Kane Williamson caught at mid-off to Xavier Doherty and then went through the defence of skipper Daniel Flynn in the very next ball to stand on the verge of a hat-trick.
Even though Hilfenhaus failed to register the hat-trick, he dismissed BJ Watling, LBW in the seventh over to sign off a good day in office.
Left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty then picked up two wickets—Daryl Mitchell and Scott Kuggeleijn—in his two consecutive overs more or less assure the win in his side's favour.
Therafeter, Doug Bollinger (3/22) came to the party and ram through the lower order to seal the win for the Australian outfit.
Scott Styris was the top-scorer for the Knights with a 27-ball 37 followed Tim Southee's 12-bal 21-run knock as no other batsmen from the Kiwi side could manage double digit score.
Earlier, Blizzard and Malik shared 100 off just 50 balls to set the platform for the total after the Hurricanes scored just 29 runs off the first six overs.
