Llew Johnson. Photo / Photosport
A breakout innings from Llew Johnson has given the Otago Volts a superb start to the Twenty20 Super Smash competition, leading his side to victory over the Auckland Aces.
The 20-year-old — who turned heads with an unbeaten 256* in a club match at the start of this season, thought
to be an all-time Dunedin premier grade record — was playing just his fourth Super Smash game, and his first since early 2018 when he was tossed in as a raw teenager for three single-figure scores.
Today he belted 72 off just 44 balls before being caught in the final over. The number four sent most of his seven sixes hurtling over the leg side, and threw in two boundaries for good measure as he capitalised on a fast start by veterans Hamish Rutherford (25 off 13) and Neil Broom (30 off 13) to share an explosive 77-run stand for the fifth with Mitch Renwick.
It proved a bad toss to win for the Aces who just couldn't get close to chasing down the Volts' 219-7 — which ranks in the top five team totals in the Volts' T20 history, and was a new T20 ground record for Molyneux Park, surpassing their 190-5 set here last season.
Ben Horne put up a brave fight with a knock of 63 off just 35 balls — his maiden T20 half century — until he slipped over setting off for an unlikely second run, and was run out. His side still finished 45 runs short, bowled out on the penultimate ball by Matt Bacon who ended their misery with 3-18.
