CL T20 11: Super Over Eliminator Gives Diamond Eagles Super 8 Over Sharks

Group B of the Champions League Twenty20 saw a heart thumping Super Over Eliminator that saw the South Africa’s Diamond Eagles soar over England’s Sussex Sharks.
Craig de Villiers has not won the faith of South African cricket circles for nothing. On this occasion, he won the opportunity to not only play for the Diamond Eagles in the key match but also, prove to be the match winner on the day, especially in the Super Over.
Eagles had to defend the nine runs they had scored in the Super Over. Defending the total, they went with the expected choice, Cornelius de Villiers, and he showed his skill by taking off the off stump in consecutive deliveries, the first two of the over to send back Dwayne Smith and Rory Hamilton-Brown in a stunning display of bowling to give the Eagles the Super Eights berth and Sussex Sharks the boot.
The Eagles stole eleven runs off the final over but the one run that would have sealed victory eluded them. Instead Ryan McLaren’s final runs gave Eagles a tie and a subsequent super over.
The Eagles looked well on the way to victory with Rilee Roussouw scoring runs at a fair clip to make sixty-five runs of the 120 runs required. But the fall of wickets at intervals coupled with a run rate that rose with the ball getting increasingly low and not coming onto the bat, the Eagles dug themselves into a hole that they nearly ended up giving away the match.
Earlier Sussex failed to simply get going into the crucial match in the group in which the New South Wales Blues had beaten both teams to qualify for the Super Eights. Joe Gatting top scored with twenty-five in an innings that saw Cornelius Johannes de Villiers and Dillon du Preez share two wickets apiece.
For Sussex to then come into the match to push it into a Super Over is then great credit to them but the Diamond Eagles showed the depth of their batting and bowling department and came through to contest the Super Eights, leaving captain Boeta Dippenaar smiling again.