All-round Mahmood and Henriques do it all

Azhar Mahmood, Auckland v Kolkata Knight Riders
3 for 16, 51* off 42 balls

A high impact all-round performance from Azhar Mahmood, his second in the tournament, gave qualifiers Auckland Aces their third comprehensive victory in South Africa, over Kolkata Knight Riders. Mahmood is in a fearsome run of form at the moment, and rode into this match on the glory of his record-setting five-wicket, fifty-run combo against Hampshire in Centurion. Mahmood's timely wickets and composed innings during the chase led Auckland to the target with 14 balls to spare, a considerable boost to their net run-rate.

In his first over, Mahmood had Jacques Kallis caught at slip and Manoj Tiwary caught and bowled off successive deliveries, reducing Knight Riders to 72 for 4. That was the fulcrum upon which this match turned, as the Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir admitted later. Mahmood's two-over spell contained a maiden and returned figures of 2 for 7. Mahmood finished with 3 for 16 in his four overs, after he had taken a five-for to knock out Hampshire in the qualifying stage.

Mahmood was at it yet again with the bat, guiding Auckland to victory with an unbeaten 42-ball 51. He joined Martin Guptill and built on Lou Vincent's aggression to accumulate steadily, while hitting the odd boundary. Fittingly, Mahmood pulled to the square-leg boundary to score the winning runs. That the stroke, a one-legged pull, also took him to a consecutive half-century made it even sweeter.

Moises Henriques, Chennai Super Kings v Sydney Sixers
49* off 23 balls, 3 for 23

Moises Henriques' blistering unbeaten 49 off 23 deliveries and his partnership with Steven Smith towards the end of the innings was the difference, as Sydney Sixers' 185 was enough to keep out Chennai Super Kings in a high-scoring contest at the Wanderers. Henriques made telling blows on the field as well, as his three middle-order wickets derailed Super Kings' chase just as the asking-rate started reducing.

Henriques began by bashing boundaries down the ground and from that point on, an above-par score looked possible. The Super Kings bowlers hemorrhaged 61 off the last four overs, which included eight fours and three sixes. Doug Bollinger and Ben Hilfenhaus, who were held back for the final overs, came in for some stick as the pair of Smith and Hilfenhaus muscled boundaries and played some cheeky ramp shots to exploit the infield.

Like he had done with the bat, Henriques proved decisive with the ball. Suresh Raina, batting on 57, aimed for the long-on boundary off Henriques' medium pace, but Smith took a well-judged catch at the edge of the rope. Henriques struck two balls later with MS Dhoni's wicket and that all but sealed the game for Sixers.

Henriques was the difference between a total Dhoni thought was gettable and one that Sixers captain Brad Haddin thought was "definitely enough" to defend. And when that total started looking as though it may be reachable, Henriques ensured it was not with his bowling. He used clever changes of pace to cap off a match to remember.