Jayawardene, Bond star in massive Sagittarius Strikers victory

Sagittarius Strikers 157-6 (Jayawardene 69) beat
Virgo Super Kings 131-9 (Mahmood 51) by 26 runs
Third match, Masters Champions League, Dubai 

Shane Bond and Daniel Vettori shared six wickets between them after Mahela Jayawardene scored a classy fifty as Sagittarius Strikers defeated Virgo Super Kings by 26 runs in the third game of the Masters Champions League in Dubai.

Sagittarius Strikers led by Adam Gilchrist won the toss and elected to bat first. Jayawardene struck a boundary and a six in the second over which was followed by a couple of boundaries from Gilchrist to take the Strikers to 23 for naught in three overs.

Azhar Mahmood (1-34) provided the initial breakthrough when he had Gilchrist caught behind, but Michael Carberry (27) joined Jayawardene to add a brisk 71-run stand for the second wicket.

The former Sri Lankan captain brought his half-century off 33 deliveries and had already hit three sixes and five boundaries by then.

Gareth Batty (1-31) finally broke the partnership by removing Carberry but Jayawardene scored two more boundaries in the next two overs as Strikers reached 124 for two in 15 overs.

Even though Super Kings conceded just 33 runs in the five overs and picked four wickets, Sagittarius Strikers reached 157 for five in the 20 overs.

Brett Lee (2-29) was the pick of the Super Kings bowlers with two wickets while Jacob Oram (1-23) was the most economical.

Virgo Super Kings were pegged back early in the chase as Bond (3-22) produced a maiden wicket first over where he dismissed Graeme Smith (0).

Owais Shah (9) and Neil Mckenzie (14) hit four boundaries in the next three overs to inject some momentum into the innings.

But Bond had other plans as he removed both the batsmen in the fifth over while Daniel Vettori (3-19) trapped Jonty Rhodes lbw (1) in the next over to restrict the Super Kings to 25 for four in the powerplay.

The slide continued further for the Super Kings when they lost six wickets in the 10 overs while scoring just 44.

Mahmood (51) kept the fight going with a 30-ball fifty but with the required run rate crossing 20, the Super Kings succumbed to a 26-run defeat.

Bond and Vettori shared six wickets between them equally with economy rates of under six for the Strikers.

© Cricket World 2016