Mondiale Auckland Aces 189-2 (Martin Guptill 84, Rob Nicol 74) beat SBS Bank Otago Volts 83 all out in 15.1 overs (Kyle Mills 2-15, Colin de Grandhomme 2-5) by 106 runs.
With a show-stopping second wicket stand of 137, the Mondiale Auckland Aces put themselves in total control of game seven by powering to a massive 189-2 against the SBS Bank Otago Volts.
Surging to his second half century in as many games, a blistering Martin Guptill (unbeaten on 84) had found his perfect ally in captain Rob Nicol as they imperiously smashed a dozen sixes between them — brutalising pace bowlers Dirk Nannes and Jacob Duffy, and giving BLACKCAPS offspinners Nick Beard and Nathan McCullum a bad day at the office as well.
The pair first built themselves a steady platform — the Aces 63-1 at the midway mark, before Nicol launched into Beard to flick his second six off the stunned spinner. From that moment on it was no holds barred, ruthless running between the wickets complimenting their clean hitting power.
Nicol murdered two consecutive sixes off McCullum, and when he eventually fell to Duffy — caught by James McMillan for a brilliant 74 off just 41 balls, there was still no respite for the Volts as Colin Munro strode in to almost immediatey boom a struggling Nannes for six.
Holding back the challenging McMillan and Jesse Ryder, who bowled just two overs apiece at the top of the innings, Volts skipper Ryan ten Doeschate perhaps rued not trying something different as the crowd continued to do the fielding. All up, the Aces struck 14 sixes and seven fours in a total that had the Volts sweating from the first ball of their reply.
Inevitably the pressure told, six Volts wickets clattering in the space of five overs to have them all but done for at 83-9 after 15 overs. The resounding win proved the perfect way for Aces mainstay Kyle Mills to celebrate his 100th Twenty20 career wicket — that of Iain Robertson, caught by Guptill for no score. Mills had picked up a lean 2-14 off his four, the wickets shared around the Aces attack before Donovan Grobbelaar ended the Volts’ suffering by having McMillan lbw with the first ball of the 16th over — the winless southerners bowled out on 83.
