Morris, Wiese shine for South African teams

Chris Morris
2 for 7, Lions v Delhi Daredevils

Lions' Chris Morris has been talked about in the South African circles as the next one to watch. The lanky fast bowler, who bowls with a high-arm action, had warmed up for the Champions League T20 with a 12-wicket haul in a first-class match - the best-ever figures for the Lions - against Dolphins in Johannesburg last month. In his first match of the tournament, he bowled a couple of tight overs to Kolkata Knight Riders' batsmen and earned the wicket of the dangerous Brendon McCullum. He carried on with the form, picking a wicket in each outing.

In the semi-final against Delhi Daredevils, Lions' batsmen had rallied to convert a slow start into a defendable 139. But against a batting line up boasting of the games' biggest hitters, Lions needed a strong response from their bowlers. Although Lions had already accounted for Virender Sehwag, Kevin Pietersen and David Warner were starting to look dangerous. Morris, who came in to bowl the fourth over, generated pace and steepling bounce off the pitch and had Pietersen in trouble as he played out five balls for just a single. Warner too could only defend the only ball he faced in that over.

In his second over, Morris struck off his third ball, which Warner wanted to pull. The ball wasn't short enough for the shot and Warner, cramped for room and beaten by pace, top-edged. The ball went high in the air and Morris got under the swirler. He gave away only two runs in the over and a further two in this third when Daredevils were looking for a push. Lions' other bowlers took advantage of the brakes applied by Morris and picked up the wickets as the run rate crept up. Morris returned to complete his spell and prised out the wicket of Pietersen - Daredevils' last hope - with a quick bouncer. Pietersen was hurried on the pull and top-edged the shot to short fine leg. Morris ended with incredible figures of 4-0-7-2 that set Lions up for a place in the final.

David Wiese
61 off 28 balls, Titans v Sydney Sixers

The second semi-final between Titans and Sydney Sixers was a much tighter affair in contrast to the first. Sydney chased down 164 off the last ball. That the game ran this close was mainly due to the contribution of one man - Titans' David Wiese, who had scored an unbeaten 28-ball 61 to put the strong Sydney side under pressure for the first time in the tournament.

The Sydney side had only once allowed a team to go beyond 140 in four previous matches and they looked good to restrict Titans to a below-par score when they had Titans tottering on 82 for 5 in the 14th over. Wiese walked out to join opener Henry Davids at that stage and didn't look like the one who was going to change the game as he scored six off his first 10 balls. Titans were 91 for 5 at this stage after 16 overs.

Pat Cummins, the fast bowler, was brought back into the attack and Wiese, relishing the pace on offer, picked up the first ball over square leg for a six. Two more boundaries came in the over - a meaty pull towards midwicket and a lucky edge in the third man area - and took Titans past 100. Wiese then took the attack to Moises Henriques. He charged down to the first ball and slammed it over deep midwicket; the next ball was lofted over long-on and another boundary was added off the fourth. 23 runs were taken off that over with Wiese accounting for 19. Wiese continued in his merry way in the next two overs with three boundaries and two sixes and brought up his half-century off 25 balls. Seventy-two runs were taken off the last four overs, 55 of which came off Wiese's bat. Titans may have lost the match, but Wiese's innings showed the frailties in Sixers' exciting but inexperienced bowling attack.