Centurion: Veteran all-rounder Azhar Mahmood grabbed five wickets and struck a half-century as Aukland Aces thrashed Hampshire by eight wickets to qualify for the main draw of the Champions League Twenty20 tournament, here on Wednesday.
In a night match, Yorkshire also qualified for the main round after beating Trinidad and Tobago.
Mahmood made inroads into the Hampshire top-order as Auckland bundled out the English county team for a modest 121 in 20 overs.
Mahmood then smashed an unbeaten 31-ball-55 to steer his side to a comfortable win with 33 balls to spare.
The Pakistani hit five sixes and four boundaries during his innings.
Auckland has thus become the first team to qualify for the main tournament, starting on Saturday. The New Zealand T20 champions have won both their qualifying matches, having beaten Sialkot Stallions on Tuesday.
Two teams – one each from Pool 1 and 2, will join the eight other teams for the main competition.
The result of Wednesday’s match means that the final match of the Pool 1 between Sialkot Stallions and Hampshire has been reduced to a dead rubber as the two teams are now out of race for a spot in the competition.
Mahmood, who is now a British passport holder ripped apart the Hampshire top-order when he removed James Vince (11) and Jimmy Adams (0) in a space of four balls. PTI
Yorkshire rode on Gary Ballance and Adil Rashid’s batting heroics to qualify for the main draw with a comfortable six-wicket win over Trinidad and Tobago.
Chasing Trinidad’s 148 for nine, Ballance (64 off 37) and Rashid (33 off 27) lifted Yorkshire from a difficult position with an unbeaten 103-run partnership fifth wicket partnership.
Ballance struck as many as six sixes and two fours while Rashid decorated his innings with three hits to the fence and one over it.
Ravi Rampaul and Samuel Badree returned with identical figures of one for 22 for the Caribbean outfit.
With two wins from as many games, Yorkshire stormed into the main draw of the tournament from Pool 2. Trinidad have crashed out of the event after just one outing, which means their final match againsr Uva becomes inconsequential.
Openers Phil Jacques (6) and skipper Andrew Gale (2) failed to provide any significant contribution for the English outfit and perished in two overs.
Joe Root (16) and Adam Lyth (18) both got starts but failed to capitalise on them and became victims of Yannick Ottley and Rayad Emrit, leaving Yorkshire’s chase in disarray at 51-4.
But if the Caribbean players thought they had a grip over the match, they were in for a rude shock as Ballance and Adil Rashid had other plans. (PTI)