New Delhi, Oct. 20: The Champions League T20 promised to be a test for the best Twenty20 sides from around the world. The two Australian teams – Victoria Bushrangers and New South Wales Blues – have stamped their authority on the tournament and will now ironically face each other in the first semi-final at the Ferozeshah Kotla here on Wednesday.

The game will be a rematch of the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash final which the Blues won by by five wickets at the Sydney Cricket Ground earlier this year. And once again it’s NSW who have the upper hand after a fine run in the competition so far.

Barring a reversal at the hands of Trinidad & Tobago (where they were floored by a Kieron Pollard special), the Blues have been dominant in every match they have played so far. NSW are led by a quality attack featuring Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Doug Bollinger and Nathan Hauritz while Moises Henriques has also chipped in, picking up seven wickets — the most for the Blues.

Lee, who has a phenomenal economy rate of 3.60 in the tournament, was simply unplayable on the two-paced Kotla surface earlier and has received good support from the ever-efficient Clark, who has six wickets at an equally impressive economy rate of 4.93.

In the batting department, the Blues are well served by openers Philip Hughes (164 runs) and David Warner (140). The latter looks in fine nick with scores of 63 (off 41 balls) and 40 (off 16 balls) in his last two innings. Skipper Simon Katich, all-rounder Henriques and Ben Rohrer are good strikers of the ball coming down the order.

The Bushrangers though have the advantage of knowing the strengths and weakness of the Blues better than anyone in the competition so far.

The Victorian side have been quite inconsistent in the tournament so far.

After stunning the Delhi Daredevils in their opening match by seven wickets, they went down to Wayamba Elevens but did just enough to qualify for the League Stage.

A seven-wicket win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore left them on the door-step of qualification and ironically an eight-wicket loss in the next match to the Cape Cobras ensured that the Bushrangers would qualify for the semifinals.

None of the Bushrangers’ batsmen have stood out in the competition so far but have done just enough to progress.

Opener Rob Quiney, who top-scored with 91 against the Blues in the KFC T20 Big Bash, will hope to repeat the fireworks here and has the prolific Brad Hodge and Australia T20 vice-captain Cameron White by his side.

One batsman due for a big score is David Hussey and the junior Hussey gave the small glimpse of the hitting prowess when he smashed RCB skipper Anil Kumble for three sixes in the final over at Bengaluru.

Pacers Clint McKay, Shane Harwood and Andrew McDonald have adapted themselves well to the Kotla surface and will be a handful for the Blues.

Both side are on even terms after playing their first round matches in Delhi and have good idea what to expect from the surface.

However, as we have seen in the past here, the form-book goes for a toss when it comes to the Kotla wicket where the Delhi Daredevils managed to defend a modest total of 114 on Monday night.