Smuts Leads Warriors in Big Win Against Redbacks

Hyderabad: Redbacks batsmen failed to rise to the occasion as the Australian outfit succumbed to a 50-run defeat against Warriors in their CLT20 clash in Hyderabad.

Warriors Lonwabo Tsotsobe took two wickets to put Redbacks on the backfoot. Tsotsobe was bang on target as he got the wicket of opener Daniel Harris and then dug in a short ball to Tom Cooper, who played straight into his hands.

In the first innings, Warriors opener JJ Smuts scored a fluent 88 to power his team to 171/5 against the Australian outfit at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

Opener Smuts gave the Warriors the kind of start they would have wanted. Right from the start he was on fire and slammed a fluent half century.

But Ashwell Prince failed to impress in this match as Redbacks strike bowler Shaun Tait proved his worth by getting the wicket of the left-hander by castling his stumps.

Earlier, Warriors captain Johan Botha won the toss and elected to bat against South Australia Redbacks.

Warriors straight away sounded warning bells for the other sides by chasing down an imposing target of 173, set by Bangalore in their opening match.

Their strength is the deep batting line-up with skipper Johan Botha coming as late as number six and still scoring a match-winning knock along with opener Ashwell Prince.

While Warriors are a star studded side with the likes of Prince, Colin Inagram and Mark Boucher in their ranks, Redbacks have only one established name in paceman Shaun Tait.

Yet, Redbacks are a young side and expected to give the Warriors a good fight.

Callum Ferguson has the experience of playing international cricket as he has done national duty for Australia in 30 ODIs and the side would look up to him for an all-round performance.

Nathan Lyon, who rose from a groundsman to Test bowler, is another player to watch out.

Lyon did well in Sri Lanka in his debut series and with wickets in India being spin-friendly, the off-spinner has good opportunity to further enhance his reputation.

Brief scores
Warriors 171 for 5 (Smuts 88, Harris 2-23)
South Australia 121 for 6 (Klinger 34, Tsotsobe 2-30)
Results Warriors won by 50 runs
MOM JJ Smuts (Warriors)
Points Warriors 2, South Australia 0

Scores	Upcoming	Results
Australia vs India - 1st Test West Indies vs Bangladesh - 1st Test 1st ODI - Zimbabwe v Pakistan - November 24, 07:30 GMT 2nd ODI - Zimbabwe v Pakistan - November 26, 07:30 GMT 3rd ODI - Sri Lanka v New Zealand at Kandy No results 3rd T20I - Australia v Pakistan at Hobart Australia won by 7 wickets (with 52 balls remaining)

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