In the space of about an hour, Northern Districts' ambitions of making the Champions League semifinals took a significant dent yesterday.
In that period, the previously unbeaten New Zealand T20 champions were unable to prevent Hobart ending their innings on a tear in Raipur - scoring 76 off the lastfive overs; then ND's top order, who had been impressive thus far in the tournament, fell apart. The 86-run loss was easily the heaviest inflicted on any side in group B of the competition, and could have serious ramifications for ND's hopes of being the first New Zealand side to crack the semifinals.
They still have two group games to play, against the impressive Indian Premier League side the Kings XI Punjab early on Saturday, and finishing with Barbados, who include former New Zealand international James Franklin, next Wednesday. They will have figured out the importance of the coming weekend.
With Hobart and the Kings XI in the box seats on eight points, four ahead of ND, Daniel Flynn's team simply must beat the IPL side. Failure to do that - and assuming Hobart see off Barbados on Sunday night - could render the Barbados game meaningless.
Hobart's 178 for three was largely down to Aiden Blizzard, who hit a brisk 62 and Pakistan allrounder Shoaib Malik's unbeaten 45 off 22 balls.
When former Australian test swing bowler Ben Hilfenhaus whistled out Kane Williamson, Flynn and BJ Watling in 13 deliveries as ND slumped to 19 for four, it was effectively over.
"Our top order has done a good job," captain Flynn said. "We backed those guys to come and do the job and unfortunately it didn't quite work out as we'd liked."
