DELHI: Simon Katich led from the front as New South Wales (NSW) Blues handed the Diamond Eagles an embarrassing 53-run defeat here today.

Simon Katich top scored with 53 off 41 as NSW made 144-6. Diamond Eagles were restricted to a paltry 91-9.

Brett Lee , Stuart Clark and Nathan Hauritz picked up wickets in their first overs as the Eagles crumbled to 24-5 inside seven overs. When Clark added the wicket of Dippenaar to his tally, it was all over. Earlier, Katich reached his half-century off only 37 balls. Moises Henriques (26) and Ben Rohrer (22 not out) were the other notable contributors for NSW.

On Thursday, a brilliant innings from JP Duminy gave Cape Cobras a five-wicket win over Royal Challengers Banglore. Ross Taylor smashed not out 53 off 24 and Robin Uthappa mustered 51 off 39 in the home side’s total of 180-4. But Duminy hit an unbeaten 99 off 52 balls as the Cobras won with two balls remaining. Cobras had an uphill task of getting 74 from the last seven overs.

Duminy clubbed two fours off van der Merwe in the 18th over and a six over long on off Vinay Kumar in the last over. A scampered single left him one short of his century as Rory Kleinveldt drove the winning boundary through the covers.