Hobart Hurricanes rode on a brilliant half century from Aiden Blizzard and Shoaib Maik's quickfire 45 to score 178 for three against Northern Knights in a Group B match of the Oppo Champions League Twenty20 here today.
Blizzard and Malik shared 100 off just 50 balls to set the platform for the total after the Hurricanes scored just 29 runs off the first six overs.
Blizzard decorated his 43-ball knock with eight boundaries, while Malik struck five fours and two sixes during his 22-ball innings.
Opening the batting skipper Tim Paine scored 43 off 34 balls with the help of six fours and one six.
Sent into bat, the Hurricanes started cautiously and scored just 21 runs off 5.3 overs before Ben Dunk (12) was caught by Tim Southee off Scott Kuggeleijn.
Skipper Paine and Blizzard then tried to built the Hurricanes' innings with a 47-run second wicket stand that came off 32 balls.
Just when it seemed the duo had settled down, Paine fell to leg-spinner Ish Sodhi, caught by Trent Boult in the 11th over.
But Blizzard and Malik steadied the ship with some sensible batting.
In fact, coming to bat at No.4 Malik was the dominant in the partnership early on as he used his long handle to great effect to pile up runs for his team.
Sodhi was the first to face the brunt of Malik's onslaught as the Pakistani batsman struck the spinner for a four and a six to pick up 14 runs off the 13th over.
Malik continued his attacking batting and clobbered Scott Styris for two boundaries and a six to score 19 runs off the 16th over.
Blizzard was not to be left behind as he matched his partner stroke by stroke and struck Boult for two fours in the next over.
Blizzard was at his attacking best towards the end of the innings as he smashed Boult for four consecutive boundaries in the 19th over to bring up his fifty in style.
Blizzard, however, departed in the first balls of the ultimate over caught by Styris off Southee.
