Victoria, Wayamba fight it out for Super Eight berth

New Delhi:

A super-eight berth at stake, Australia's Victoria Bushrangers and Sri Lanka's Wayamba Elevens take on each other in the must-win final group D match of the Champions League Twenty20 tournament here on Tuesday.

While Bushrangers are on a high after beating local favourites Delhi Daredevils in their opening match, Wayamba were handed a crushing defeat by the same side last night. Led by all-rounder Cameron White, Victoria put up a thoroughly clinical performance in their opening match.

Their bowlers wrecked havoc and dismissed Delhi's seasoned line-up for under 100 runs and their batters negotiated the tricky Feroze Shah Kotla track well to steer the team to a comfortable win.

Right-arm medium pacer Clint McKay was the pick of the bowlers in that match with three scalps and he would aim for an encore against Wayamba tomorrow.

Victoria have a solid batting line-up starting with Australia international Brad Hodge, who would look to strike form after coming a cropper against Daredevils.

Rob Quiney looked in fine touch with a fluent 40 and would aim to follow it up with another good knock. Further down, White and Michael Hussey's brother David add to the team's batting strength.

Wayamba's batting, on the other hand, flopped miserably against Delhi with Mahela Jayawardene being the only one to put up a fight.

"Our guys were overwhelmed by the situation. It's a do or die situation for us now," admitted Jayawardene.

If their batting was bad, the bowling was no better and though mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis picked up a couple of wickets in the opening match, he conceded way too many runs. The likes of Farveez Maharoof and Chanaka Welegedara also failed to make any impact.

Given Wayamba's poor form, Victoria start overwhelming favourites to win and make the next stage of the event.

The Teams (from):

Victoria Bushrangers: Cameron White (C), Aiden Blizzard, Aaron Finch, Shane Harwood, John Hastings, Brad Hodge, Jon Holland, David Hussey, Andrew McDonald, Bryce McGain, Clint McKay, James Pattinson, Rob Quiney, Peter Siddle, Matthew Wade.

Wayamba Elevens: Jehan Mubarak (C), Ishara Amerasinghe, Sameera de Zoysa, Rangana Herath, Mahela Jayawardene, Shalika Karunanayake, Jeevantha Kulatunga, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Farveez Maharoof, Ajantha Mendis, Thissara Perera, Isuru Udana, Mahela Udawatte, Michael Vandort, Chanaka Welegedara.