Wiese, Mills the top performers

David Wiese' 61 for Titans in their close semi-final defeat against Sydney Sixers is the best innings in the Champions League Twenty20 2012 according to ESPNcricinfo's analysis of individual batting and bowling performances. Wiese, who came in with Titans struggling at 82 for 5, scored 61 off just 28 balls including 48 runs in boundaries. His innings, which is also ranked third on the list of all-time best batting performances in the Champions League Twenty20, is well ahead of second-placed Gary Ballance's 64 on the 2012 list. On the bowling front, the best performance is Kyle Mills' 2 for 6 in Auckland's six-wicket win in their qualifying game against Sialkot Stallions. The batting list is dominated by Titans and Sixers, who have three and two innings respectively in the top ten. Despite failing to make the semi-final stage, Auckland, led by Mills and Azhar Mahmood, dominated the bowling list with three top-ten performances.

Coming in at No.7, Wiese was under pressure with Titans five down in the 14th over. He proceeded to hit four sixes and scored at a strike rate of 217.85 enabling Titans to finish on a competitive 163. Only two players managed to score above 40 in a game where the combined strike rate of the other batsmen was just 116.50. However, Wiese's superb effort went in vain as Sixers edged the game off the last ball of the innings. Ballance, who topped the run charts for Yorkshire, has two performances in the top ten (second and seventh). Although his 64 against Trinidad and Tobago is second, it is nearly 14 points behind Wiese' innings. Ballance' knock comes in slightly ahead of Moises Henriques' quickfire 49 against Chennai Super Kings. Henriques came in to bat in the 14th over and dominated a 75-run stand with Steven Smith. The top five is completed by Neil McKenzie and Michael Lumb. McKenzie's 68, which is in fourth place, helped Lions overhaul a competitive target of 158 against Mumbai Indians with ease. Lumb's 82 came off just 42 balls (62 runs in boundaries) and made the final a no-contest. In contrast, the rest of the batsmen were able to score at only just over a run a ball. Dinesh Karthik and Debabrata Das produced two good innings (eighth and ninth) in a tournament that proved to be mostly forgettable for all IPL teams except Delhi Daredevils, who qualified for the semi-finals.

In Auckland's qualifying game against Stallions, Mills finished with 2 for six off his quota of four overs. In a match where the run-rate was 7.15, Mills' economy rate of 1.50 was exceptional. While Mills' performance, which is ranked fourth across all seasons, came in the first innings, second-placed Chris Morris produced a superb display in the semi-final against Daredevils. Defending a modest target of 140, Morris bowled his four overs for just seven runs (economy rate of 1.75) and helped Lions restrict Daredevils to 117. While both Mills and Morris finished in the top two because of an excellent economy rate, Mahmood and Lasith Malinga are third and fourth primarily because of the fact that they picked up five-wicket hauls. While Mahmood's 5 for 24 came in the qualifying game against Hampshire, Malinga's effort came in Mumbai's six-run defeat against Chennai. L Balaji's 4 for 19 helped Kolkata Knight Riders crush Titans by 99 runs but was not enough to ensure qualification for the last four. In contrast to the batting list, where the top two innings were separated by a big margin, the top-five bowling performances are bundled much more closely with the gap between the No.1 and No.5 less than three points. Also, the top four bowling performances in 2012 finished among the top ten across all seasons of the Champions League.