The Oppo Champions League T20 was one of the exciting tournaments of T20 in world cricket. This tournament brought champions from all around the world to fight for being crowned as the ultimate champion or champion of champions. The tournament saw teams from Sri Lanka, West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and Pakistan to fight it out against each other. This year the tournament was being hosted in India and it was one of the tournaments where the Indian teams were favored.
The tournament kicked off with the qualifying round watching Mumbai Indians, Lahore Lions, Southern Express and Northern Districts fight it out against each other to qualify for the main leg of the tournament. All the matches were played at the city of Raipur and Northern Districts emerged as champions of the qualifying league while Lahore Lions came 2nd. The Districts showed some great potential as they played a great game of cricket while on the other hand the Lions fought hard to ensure a place in the next stage.
The Opener of the tournament was one of the most mouth-watering one with Chennai Super Kings fight it out against Kolkata Knight Riders. The match saw Kolkata emerge as winners. It was a game which switched hands in between and at the end it was Knight Riders who made it. On the other Kings XI Punjab took on Hobart Hurricanes and emerged victorious. The group matches were played amongst each teams and it saw Kolkata Knight Riders top the group with 4 wins while the Kings XI Punjab topped Group B with 4 wins. The second team to qualify from Group B was Hobart Hurricanes with 3 wins. On the other hand the qualification suspense went to the wire as Lahore Lions were a contender for the semi-final spot. At the end it was Chennai who made it through as Lions failed to win their final game.
The semi-final stage was being played between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Hobart hurricanes. This was a tough challenge for the Hurricanes and at the end they ended up losing in front of the experienced Jacques Kallis. He ensured that his team entered the final of the tournament. On the other hand the Chennai Super Kings registered an emphatic win over the Kings XI Punjab to enter the finals.
The Final is always a big stage game and Chennai has always been clinical in their performance in such crucial matches. On the other the determined Kolkata Knight Riders were the emerging team as they were doing things right. The biggest blow to the team came when Sunil Narine was banned to bowl for a suspect in the action. This was one of the biggest blows one can get before a final. In the finals of the tournament Kolkata Knight Riders scored 180 in 20 overs batting first. Gautam Gambhir was the star of the show as he scored 80 runs. Chennai had a tough task in hand which was done with ease. Suresh Raina blasted his way to a century in a final scoring 109 runs. He remained unbeaten and drove his team to be crowned as Champion of Champions.
The tournament produced some moments which changed the face of the match. The most dramatic moment was the ban being imposed on Sunil Narine just before the finals of the tournament. This ban reduced the chances of a Kolkata knight riders win as he was an integral part of this team. Apart from this Anton Devich and Kane Williamson stole the show as they batted brilliantly for the Northern Districts. One of the biggest fail this year was Dwayne Smith as he failed to impress with the bat. This tournament also saw the Kolkata Knight Riders having a 14 match unbeaten streak which was finally broken in the final.
With all the dramatic matches and events the tournament came to an end with Chennai being crowned as champion of champions for the 2nd time. Suresh Raina won a bag full of awards which included the golden bat award for scoring most runs and Man of the series award. Sunil Narine on the other hand was awarded with the golden ball award for picking up the maximum number of wickets.
Champions League Twenty20 History - The first edition of the tournament held in October 2009 and it is mutually inherited by Cricket South Africa, Board of Control for Cricket in India and Cricket Australia. At best, it is mainly the T20 competition between the best teams of domestic leagues of seven Test-playing nations. After the first IPL season cricket authorities of South Africa, Australia and India started the international club competition to make the T20 format more popular worldwide. Mumbai Indians have the best stats in the tournament as they won the title for two times in 2011 and 2013 respectively and they are also the defending champions of CL T20 2014 edition.
Apart from Mumbai Indians in 2013, Sydney Sixers (Big Bash League) won the title in 2012 and Chennai Super Kings (Indian premier League) in 2010. The inaugural edition of the tournament was won by New South Wales Blues.
Format of Oppo CL T20 2014 - Well, each edition of the tournament had a different kind of format and different numbers of participating teams. The qualifying stage of this tournament was started in 2011 by reducing the number of direct entrants of the tournament.
Basically, the winner of this prestigious T20 tournament will be buttoned down through two particular stages, i.e. group stage and knockout stage. Including qualifying stage 4 teams take part in the tournament from Indian Premier League, 2 teams from Big Bash League (Australia), 2 teams from MiWay T20 Challenge (South Africa) and rest of the 4 teams participate from Caribbean Premier League (West Indies), HRV Cup (New Zealand), Faysal Bank Super Eight T20 Cup (Pakistan) and Sri Lanka Super 4 League equally. However, Pakistan is participating in the tournament since 2012.
Each team of CL T20 gets $500,000 for participating and the winner of this event gets extra $2.5 million and the Runners-up $1.3 million. Teams eliminated in the group stage also get $200,000 apart from participation money and Losers in semi-finals procure $500,000. A total of $6 million is involved in the series.
Champions League T20 2014 Broadcasters worldwide
In India, live streaming of 2014 Champions League T20 was done by Starsports.com right on desktop, tablet & Television.
- New Zealand - SKY TV
- South East Asia - Star Cricket
- Malaysia - Astro
- South Asia - Star Sports
- Bangladesh - Gazi TV
- Pakistan - PTV
- Middle East and North Africa - OSN
- Sub Saharan Africa - Supersport
- UK and Europe - Eurosports
- USA, Caribbean and South America - ESPN
- Canada - Sportsnet
Teams of Oppo Champions League Twenty20 2014 - Total of four teams participated in the qualifying stage, i.e. Mumbai Indians (fourth team of IPL), Northern Districts (winners of 2013-14 HRV Cup), Lahore Lions (Winners of 2013–14 Faysal Bank T20 Cup) and Southern Express ( Winners of 2014 Super 4's T20 Sri Lanka).
Eight teams got direct entrance in CL T20 2014 which are Perth Scorchers (Winners of 2013–14 Big Bash League), Hobart Hurricanes (Runners-up of BBL), Dolphins (Winners of 2013–14 Ram Slam T20 Challenge South Africa), Cape Cobras (Runners-up of Ram Slam T20 Challenge), Kolkata Knight Riders (Winners of Indian Premier League 2014), Kings XI Punjab (Runners-up of IPL 2014), Chennai Super Kings (Third team of IPL 2014) and the winner of 2014 Caribbean Premier League i.e. Barbados Tridents.
Champions League Twenty20 2014 stadiums - The 2014 edition of the tournament was scheduled to take place in India. The qualification round was played at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium at Naya Raipur and the capacity of the stadium is 60,000.
The inaugural match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings was played at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad (Capacity: 55,000) and the other matches of CL T20 in Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh and M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore.
Both of the semi-finals was played at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium and the final of Champions League Twenty20 2014 at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore (capacity: 36,430)
|