Wayamba Elevens defeated Victoria Bushrangers by 15 runs in last Group D match of the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 but it was not enough for the Sri Lankan side to progress to the next stage of the event as they missed out on net run-rate.
After posting a paltry 118 for nine on the board, Wayanba needed to restrict Victoria under 83 to qualify for the next stage, but they failed to do so, thereby losing out a Super Eight spot to Delhi Daredevils and the Australian side.
Daredevils will now play their first league match in Bangalore on Saturday, and will return to the home turf to round off their league outing.
Brad Hodge top-scored for Victoria in their wayward run-chase with unbeaten 44 off 52 balls, while Andrew McDonald remained not out on 27 off 16 deliveries.
For Wayamba, Chanaka Welegedara was pick of the bowlers, scalping two wickets for 18 from his four overs.
Defending the modest total, Welegedara gave Wayamba a dream start, getting the vital wicket of Rob Quiney with Victoria yet to open their account.
The left-arm pacer pulled off a superb catch of his own bowling in the third delivery of the opening over.
He struck again in the fifth over with Aiden Blizzard give away a simple catch to Ajantha Mendis at mid-off to see Victoria in a spot of bother.
The Victoria batsmen too found it difficult to get going in this wicket as they could yield only 37 runs in the first 10 overs.
With just 83 runs in sight to progress to the next stage, Brad Hodge and David Hussey played cautiously to add 28 runs for the fourth wicket before the latter was cleaned up by Farvez Maharoof to add little spice to what otherwise was a dull match.
Just when it seemed that it was all over for Wayamba, Thishara Perera latched on to superb running catch off White at long-off.
It was clearly visible in Victoria's approach that their initial target was to cross the 83-run mark and Andrew McDonald ensured that for the Australian team, hitting three consecutive boundaries and a six off Kaushal Lokuarachchi in the 18th over to see his side into the league stage of the tournament.
Needing, 20 runs of the last over for victory, Hodge and McDonald failed to hit the ball to the distance and could manage only four runs.
Earlier, Shane Harwood (3/14) ripped apart the Wayamba Elevens batting line up while Clint MCKay (2/24) and Andrew McDonald (2/19) complemented him ably to restrict Wayamba to a paltry 118 for nine.
Andrew McDonald also claimed a couple of wickets, including the important scalp of Mahela Jayawardene.
Jeevantha Kulatunga (42 off 39 balls) and Michael Vandort (42 off 44) were the lone bright spot in the Wayamba batting chart with the duo sharing 81 runs for second wicket but still could not manage to guide the Sri Lankan side total past 120 mark.
To the disappointment of Wayamba, their middle-order fell like a house of cards and completely failed to capitalise on the platform set by Kulatunga and Vandort, losing seven wickets for just 34 runs.
Opting to bat on a placid Ferozeshah Kotla wicket, Wayamba's innings never got the momentum against the pace duo of Harwood and Peter Siddle, scoring just 16 runs in the first six overs.
To make matter worse for Wayamba, opener Mahela Udawatte's poor show with the bat continued as Siddle caught him plumb in front of the wicket.
The Wayamba batsmen finally cut loose in the ninth over, welcoming left-arm spinner John Holland with two lofty hits over fence, one each by Kulatunga and Vandort.
Having broken the shackles, both the players opened up to accelerate the Wayamba innings.
They were cruising merrily till the 15th over when McKay's double strikes jolted them.
Vandort, who had overcome his early sluggishness to strike three fours and a six in his 44-ball stay, had his timbers disturbed by McKay.
Kulatunga followed suit four balls later, caught at long-on boundary by McDonald. The right-hander hit three fours and cleared the fence twice during his stay at the crease.
Harwood then came up with twin strikes in the 17th over to dig Wayamba into deep trouble at 95 for five.
The right-arm pacer went through the defence of both captain Jehan Mubarak and Kaushal Lokuarachchi in a span of four balls to give Victoria an upper hand in the encounter.
As if that was not enough, experienced Jayawardene was caught at long-off off McDonald.
Thishara Perera showed promise, clobbering McDonald over the long-off boundary before he was caught by Rob Quiney in the next delivery.
