Decent bowling, complemented by disciplined batting, scripted Diamond Eagles' five-wicket victory over Somerset, who kissed their semi-final hopes goodbye after losing the League B encounter of the Champions League, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, in Hyderabad, on Friday.
The Eagles bowlers, especially Cornelius de Villiers (4/17), did a brilliant job, allowing just one significant partnership in the Somerset innings and restricted the English outfit to a modest 132 for eight wickets.
The same discipline was visible in their chase, as Morne van Wyk (47) and Ryan Bailey (29) guided them towards the victory mark and their teammates completed formalities with 1.2 overs to spare.
Eagles got off to an eventful start in pursuit of victory, with in-form Rilee Rossouw (13) in the thick of things. The attacking left-hander, who had slammed a half-century against Sussex, was clearly in a hurry today.
He came down the track to smash the first ball across the rope, while thrashing the fourth delivery into the sightscreen for a massive six, to make a clear statement of intent.
Charl Willoughby's torment, however, was soon over as Alfredo Thomas pouched Rossouw's skier at mid-on to see the back of the batsman, who was looking ominous.
Morne van Wyk and Adrian McLaren (13) maintained the tempo, picking boundaries at will. Their stance yielded 30 quick runs before McLaren fell to Willoughby, having hit the bowler for a four off the previous delivery.
If van Wyk was perturbed after losing two partners, it did not show, as he smote Max Waller for a huge six over mid-wicket.
In keeping with the trend, just when things were looking picture-perfect for the Eagles, came the next setback, as captain Boeta Dippenaar (18) holed out to Wes Durston off Waller in the 12th over.
The situation merited caution and van Wyk sensibly retreated into a shell, leaving the job of scoring to Ryan Bailey (29).
Both eventually fell in quick succession but, by then, the writing was on the wall for Somerset. Ryan McLaren and Alan Kruger completed the formalities.
Earlier, Wes Durston starred in a 77-run stand with James Hildreth to guide Somerset to 132 for eight.
Recovering from the shock of Marcus Trescothick's sudden departure for home due to stress-related illness, Somerset found themselves in a hole at 52 for five inside nine overs with Corneius de Villiers (4/17) wreaking havoc on their top and middle order.
Durston (57 off 32 balls), who replaced Trescothick, and Hildreth (31), then steadied the ship with a crucial partnership that may not have resulted in an imposing total but at least gave their bowlers something to defend.
De Villiers triggered panic in his first over, trapping opener Craig Kieswater (8) and next-man-in Arul Suppiah (0) with his fourth and fifth legitimate deliveries, separated by a wide ball in between.
In his next over, he removed Zander de Bruyn (2), and at 19 for three the situation looked anything but rosy for the English side.
His team in crisis, a lot was expected from Justin Langer (12), but two back-to-back fours off Shadley van Schalkwyk were all he managed before Thandi Tshabalala castled him with his first delivery.
Alan Kruger then caught Peter Tego off his own delivery before Durston and Hildreth did a damage control job.
