Super Smash | Canterbury Kings blow away Wellington Firebirds to avenge Final’s loss

Canterbury Kings avenged last season’s final of Super Smash by serving a 6-wicket drubbing to Wellington Firebirds on Sunday, 19 December. Chasing a tricky total of 152 runs, Kings wasted no time in attacking the Firebirds’ bowling attack and put them out of shape very early in the game. 

The charge was led by Chad Bowes, who put first three balls of the innings for boundary, pushing back Hamish Bennett straight away. The 34-year-old New Zealand national team star was taken off the attack after just two overs having spilled 22 runs. Things were looking quite comfortable at the end of the powerplay with Kings scoring 61 runs having lost just one wicket of their opener K McClure.

However, things got a little tricky in the middle with Kings losing two more wickets in quick succession inside the next four overs, although that seemed to do little to stop Bowes who kept on attacking the bowlers whenever he could.

Wicket-keeper batsman Cam Fletcher walked in at number four in the fag end of the ninth over and started off cautiously. As Bowes crossed his personal milestone of 50 runs in the 11th over, Fletcher looked to tee off. From eight runs off 11 balls, Fletcher went on a rapid counter attacking spree to score 52 runs off just 28 deliveries.

The last wicket to fall was of Bowes in the 16th over, but the game was done at that point.

Kings chased down the target in 16.3 overs with six wickets remaining.

Earlier in the first innings, the pace duo of Ed Nuttall and Matt Henry were on the money against Firebirds and picked up regular wickets to damage any possible moment the Firebirds could fetch.

If it were not for the death overs spree from Logan van Beek and Peter Younghusband, Firebirds would not have been able to cross 150 runs.

As the charts stand, Canterbury Kings are ranked second in the list having won two out of their first three games. Central district lead the charts with 10 points from four matches.