Butler and ten Doeschate's triple strikes

The outrageous stroke
The last over of a Twenty20 innings may be as good a time as any to play a novel stroke, but even by those standards, Nuwan Kulasekara's reverse swipe to Ian Butler was a little ambitious. Butler had overpitched his previous delivery, and was punished with a six by Kulasekara, but when he overcorrected next ball, and bowled a shin-high full toss, Kulasekara thought to change his stance and attempt to reverse-paddle through third man. The batsman got nowhere near the ball and ended up with his stumps rattled.

In the first of the two overs of the match that saw Volts secure definitive momentum, Ian Butler took three wickets and conceded just two runs, in Kandurata's 18th over. At 134 for 4, Kandurata might have hoped for a score in excess of 165, but as they attempted to hit out, Butler reaped just rewards for his early discipline. A tired Upul Tharanga first sliced him to cover point, before Kaushal Lokuarachchi attempted a lap sweep and had his leg-stump uprooted next ball. A hat-trick did not quite follow, but Butler achieved the next best thing. An angled yorker heading for the base of middle stump was missed by Chamara Silva, who took it on the pad, to give the umpire his easiest decision of the match .

Another Brendon McCullum special would have made light work of Kandurata's modest total, but thanks to quick work from Kumar Sangakkara, Kandurata accounted for him in the eighth over, and dialed up the tension in Volts' chase. Sangakkara was keeping up to the medium pace of Dilhara Lokuhettige, and when McCullum reached for a slower ball and missed, a moment's overbalancing cost him his wicket. Sangakkara gathered from wide of the stumps and dislodged the bails in an instant, and replays found McCullum had nothing behind the line.

Having kept Otago to 62 for 2 from the first 10 overs, Kandurata may have again felt the match was within their grasp, but as so often happens in Twenty20 cricket, the momentum swung decisively the other way in a matter of deliveries. Lahiru Thirimanne hoped to get a cheap over out of Kaushal Lokuarachchi, so he could save Ajantha Mendis for later in the innings, but he quickly saw his gamble backfire. Ryan ten Doeschate had begun cautiously, hitting 7 from his first 9 balls, but charged the first ball from Lokuarachchi, whom he had never faced before, and deposited him in the stands behind the sightscreen. The second ball, tossed up slightly wider, fared no better, as ten Doeschate launched it over long on, before slog-sweeping the next one over cow corner, to secure the ascendancy his team would not surrender for the remainder of the match.