Northern Districts' rousing run of four straight wins at the Champions League came to a shuddering halt in Raipur today.
In their second group B game, the New Zealand T20 champions suffered an 86-run beating by the Hobart Hurricanes to drop to third on the points table.
Having sent Hobartin to bat, the innings began well for the ND bowlers, however a 100-run stnd in 8.2 overs for the third wicket by Aiden Blizzard and Shoaib Malik, with 62 off 43 balls and an unbeaten 45 off 22 respectively, pushed the Australian side to 178 for three.
In reply, ND collapsed from the outset, the first five batsmen failed to reach double figures, contributing just 23, as they were rolled for just 92.
Only veteran Scott Styris with 37 not out off 27 balls and a late 21 off 12 by Tim Southee passed 10. They contributed 58 in 39 balls; the other nine batsmen combined for 26 off 61 deliveries as former test seamer Ben HIlfenhaus took three for 14 from his four overs to put the innings on the skids early.
Left armer Doug Bollinger swept away the tail taking three for 22 and ND were left to lament a bad slipup.
''I didn't feel we were safe (at halfway)," Hobart captain Tim Paine said.
''These guys have been playing extremely well, but we thought if we could take early wickets some of them hadn't done a lot of batting in qualifying or the first game so we just wanted to put them under early pressure."
After six overs, Hobart were 29 for one but accelerated through Blizzard and Pakistan allrounder Malik.
''We thought we could have restricted them to a few less," ND captain Daniel Flynn said. ''But then we lost early wickets and were never really in the game from there."
Kane Williamson, who has hit the only century of the tournament plus two fifties, fellow opener Anton Devcich and BJ Watling had been in solid form but all missed out today.
''Obviously we'll take a few lessons out of it. They played very well but I don't think we'll look too deeply into it. We've got another game in a couple of days so will look forward to that," Flynn said.
ND's run rate also took a hit, down from + 4.5 to -1.94. They have four points from two games, while Hobart have eight from three and the Kings XI Punjab eight from two, both with superior run rates to ND.
Having played all five games so far at Raipur, ND now travel to Mohali to play the strong King XI Punjab early on Saturday.
