Spin surprise and the Lumb coup

With an attack that includes three of Australia's most promising quicks, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, it was somewhat surprising to see Sydney open the bowling with spin. Nathan McCullum was given the new ball, perhaps not such an unprecedented act because Sydney used Steve O'Keefe in the same role against Yorkshire in the group stage. But it was definitely surprising when they gave O'Keefe the ball for the second over to begin with spin from both ends. It was move that paid off handsomely.

When the Lions lurched to 8 for 3 after three overs, they had to do some damage control. Sohail Tanvir was sent in up the order at No.5 but things got even worse three balls later when Alviro Petersen went forward to an O'Keefe delivery and edged tamely to slip. All talk of the World T20 final dissipated as the dreaded "choke" word crept out of its hole again.

Jean Symes and Thami Tsolekile put the Lions back on vaguely respectable ground and then had to up to the run-rate. Symes made it his responsibility to call for quick singles and when he edged an O'Keefe ball to the offside, scurried through. Brad Haddin, despite his injured thumb, managed a quick pick up and his throw to the non-strikers' end was good. The bowler could not pick up cleanly but if he had, Symes could have been well out.

The Lions batted so badly that by the final over the tournament's top wicket-taker, Mitchell Starc had not even claimed a scalp. But they did save one for him. When Aaron Phangiso tried to pull Starc but ended up doing nothing more than awkwardly hitting him to fine leg, Josh Hazelwood was there to ensure Starc a wicket.

Sydney were cautiously building their total and the Lions seemed to be able to do nothing to make them take a risk. After the Powerplay, Phangiso was called on and he gave them their first chance. Lumb charged him and hit to long-off where Gulam Bodi was positioned. He put both hands up in front of his face, but the ball slipped through and ricocheted off his shoulder to the boundary. Lumb was on 17.

Brad Haddin also got another chance. When he flicked Dirk Nannes down to deep square, he had not got hold of it properly and Dwaine Pretorius was in the perfect position to catch it. With hands above his head, all he managed to do was help the ball over the boundary, in front of the Sydney dugout. He had to make his way through them to collect the ball afterwards.

When the match started, Lumb was 58 runs behind the leading run scorer and fifth on the overall list. Four South African batsmen were ahead of him: Bodi, Neil McKenzie, Jacques Rudolph and Henry Davids. To leapfrog all of them he needed the two playing in the match, Bodi and McKenzie to score very little, and for him to post a half-century and more. It was possible though it seemed unlikely. Bodi managed 6 and McKeznie 0 respectively and Lumb's flick to deep midwicket at the end of the 11th over saw him overtake them all.