Ellis first to 100 wicket T20 milestone for winning Kings
Canterbury didn’t miss a beat with the loss of superstar recruit Ben Stokes, handing out a six-wicket Twenty20 beating to Otago in Alexandra on Tuesday.
Captain Andy Ellis led from the front, taking 5-16 as Canterbury restricted Otago to 144-9 in their 20 overs.
Canterbury were playing their first Supersmash game without Stokes after the England allrounder flew home on Saturday for family reasons.
Ellis became the first player to reach
100 T20 wickets when he bowled Otago Volts star Jimmy Neesham with just his third delivery of the match.
llis then added Mark Craig to his victims list before mopping up the tail with three wickets in the last over.
Otago skipper Rob Nicol also led from the front for his side with 65 not out from
58 balls but the opener got precious little support with no other batsmen making it to 20.
Canterbury knocked off the required runs in 18.1 overs with opener Nick Kwant leading the way with 48 from 35 balls.
He and Michael Pollard (20) put on 43 for the opening wicket and Canterbury were largely untroubled with Cam Fletcher (31no) and Cole McConchie (31no) seeing the visitors home with a welljudged chase.
The match between the Firebirds and Auckland Aces at Wellington’s Basin Reserve was abandoned without a ball bowled.
For the defending champion Firebirds, it was the second washout of their campaign and leaves them midtable after their fifth game.
Meanwhile the Northern Knights host the Central Stags at Tauranga today.
Canterbury has joined Northern at the top of the table with 12 points from four games while Auckland has 10 from four.