CLT20 2011 Qualifiers: Kolkata, Somerset Join Trinidad And Tobago Into Main Draw

Somerset and Kolkata Knight Riders joined Trinidad and Tobago as the three teams to qualify for the main draw of the Champions League T20 on the last day of the qualifiers of the tournament at Hyderabad.

On the last day of the qualifiers today, Ruhuna defeated Leicestershire and knocked them out of the tournament while the game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Somerset ended in the favour of the latter.

The rules of qualifications meant that the top sides from each group, Trinidad and Tobago and Somerset, went through directly while Kolkata Knight Riders followed in their footsteps as the best second-placed side between the two groups.

Ruhuna batted first in their game against Foxes and on a pitch that has been rather challenging for the batsmen over the first couple of days, went on to get 160 in their innings. One would have thought that they had had enough on board but Leicestershire fought hard through Abdul Razzaq. Razzaq’s 46-ball 64 and his partnership with Andrew McDonald allowed the side to requiring 88 to win off the last 75.

However, a middle-order collapse triggered by Asanka Silva and Janaka Gunaratne ensured that the Leicestershire fell four runs short of the win and crashed out of the tournament.

This meant that going into the second game, there were various permutations worked out. With the Knight Riders batting second, a win for them with more than nine balls to spare would have taken them and Ruhuna into the main draw. A win with less than nine balls would have allowed them to go through alongside Somerset. A Somerset win by more than 14 runs would see them through along with Ruhuna but if the English county had won by less than 14, it would have enabled them to qualify for the main tournament with Kolkata.

Somerset batted well through Peter Trego (70) to get to 166 which meant that the Knight Riders needed to get to 153 or more to go through.