Lahore Badshahs score second consecutive victory!

Azhar Mahmood & Imran Nazir jointly declared Man of the Match

The fifth match of the Edelweiss 20s Challenge featured the dominant Lahore Badshahs taking on the Hyderabad Heroes at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium, Sector-3, Panchkula. In a one sided affair the Badshahs overwhelmed the Hyderabad Heroes, defeating them by 9 wickets. Azhar Mahmood & Imran Nazir were declared as joint winners for Man of the Match.

The grounds men had worked hard on the pitch & a light shower just before the start of the match had freshened up the pitch. It was expected to produce true bounce conducive to stroke play from the rich batting line up of both the sides. Heroes captain Chris Harris, won the toss and elected to bat. The Heroes opened the batting with international Jimmy Maher & promising domestic player Anirudh Singh. Azhar Mahmood got the Badshahs their first breakthrough castling Jimmy Maher for 5 in the first over.

A horrible mix up between the promising Anirudh & Rayudu resulted in the formers run out leaving the Heroes innings reeling at 13/2 in the second over. Badshahs inform bowler Rana Naved, got into the act getting Rayudu nick one to the slip cordon into the safe hands of Inzamam. By the fifth over the Badshahs bowling was showing its might leaving the Heroes innings struggle at 21/4.

Justin Kemp & Heroes captain Harris did not trouble the scorers much & were packed back by the magnificent Badshahs bowling , leaving the Heroes innings in absolute tatters at 31/6 in the in the 7th over. The halfway mark of the Heroes innings read a dismal 44/6 with Boje & Razzaq battling it out in the middle. The end of the 15th over had the heroes at 67/6 with Boje trying hard to resurrect the innings. Razzaq unsuccessfully tried to increase the scoring rate, bowled by the quick MD Sami for only 10.

The bowling was right from the top drawer. Boundaries were far & between in the Heroes innings. Tight overs from international stalwarts like Saqlain, Sami ably supported by medium pacer Shahid Nazir kept a tight leash on the scoring rate. Azhar Mahmood was too good for the tail-enders bundling the Heroes innings for only 86.

In reply the Badshahs opened the innings with the two attacking openers Farhat & Nazir. Abdul Razzaq who opened the bowling for the Heroes got an early breakthrough sending back the dangerous Farhat for 4 in the very first over. Lady luck too was not smiling upon the Heroes with an eventful 4th over from Reddy seeing a catch of a no ball followed with a boundary and a dropped chance in the slips. The boundaries started coming fast & thick from the Badshahs bat with Nazir severe on the young Reddy taking him for 21 runs in the 6thover.

At the end of the 6th over the Badshahs were handsomely placed at 55 for the loss of only one wicket. Nazir was dealing in boundaries and his partnership with Farhat was worth 70 runs in only 46 balls taking the total to 74/1 in the 8th over. Two big sixes of spinner IS Reddy by the mercurial Imran Nazir took the Badshahs home to a comprehensive victory!

Brief Scores: (Hyderabad heroes 86 /10, N. Boje 39, A Mahmood 5/13 Rana Naved 2/19) lost by 9 wickets (Lahore Badshahs 87/1 Imran Nazir 62, H Farhat 18 , Abdul Razzaq 1/15)

resource: www.indiancricketleague.in

Kolkata Tigers clinch thriller against Champs

Andre Adams declared Man of the Match

The fourth match of the Edelweiss 20s Challenge being played at Tau Devi Lal Stadium Sector-3, Panchkula featured the Mumbai Champs taking on the spirited Kolkata Tigers from the city of joy. The pitch report had the experts declare the pitch as dry with low bounce.

Craig Mcmillan, the Tigers captain won the toss and elected to bat. The Tigers won the thriller by 2 runs handing the Mumbai Champs their second straight defeat in the Edelweiss 20s Challenge. Andre Adams was declared Man of the Match for his all round performance.

The Tigers opened the innings with Subhomoy Das & the great Lance Klusener. Das got into the act right away sending the ball to the ropes twice in the first over of Van der Wath. Tino best got the first break with a fast delivery castling Lance Klusener in the 4th over for 9. At the end of the fifth over the Tigers were placed at 35 /1. Astle brought on medium pacer Khird in the 7th over and he responded with a wicket on the first ball getting Subhomoy Das for 21.

Kasprowicz who was hit for a couple of boundaries in his previous over got right back into the game clean bowling the dangerous Tigers captain MCmillan in the 10th over. By the end of the 10th over the match was a keen contest between the bat & the ball, with the Tigers placed at 67/3.

The promising Jhunjhunwala was looking good in the company of the experienced Rohan Gavaskar, till a rush of blood saw him getting out to a smart piece of stumping by Paul of the impressive bowling of Khirid in the 14th over.

At the end of the 15th over the tigers were placed at 102/4. Rohan Gavaskar was the mainstay of the Tigers batting, but the boundaries were hard to come by. The hard hitting Andre Adams came to the party clubbing two big sixes of the final Tino Best over. The Tigers innings finally folded at 146/5 in 20 overs.

The Mumbai Champs reply started on a shaky note with Jayanta castled by Andre Adams in the first over. The newly promoted opener S Paul along with Raviraj Patil were in a positive mood displaying an array of strokes taking the score to 34/1 at the end of the 4th over . Patil especially was in an aggressive mood showing scant respect for the reputed opposition bowlers, stroking some audacious strokes all across the park.

The courageous partnership came to an end when the Tigers captain got the dangerous Patil out for a well made 52 in the 10th over. At the 11th over the Champs were well placed at 87/2 with captain Nathan Astle & Paul battling it out for the Champs at the crease. Some tight overs in the middle of the innings from the experienced Klusener & Mcmillan brought the tigers back into the game.

At the end of the 15th over the Champs were placed at 102/3, needing 45 off the last 5 overs at 9 runs per over. Astle played some big shots but a rash stroke brought an end to his promising innings of 30, which changed the fortunes for Champs.

A mini collapse with quick wickets of Van der Wath & Powar & Khanolkar reduced the Champs to 130 /6 in the 17th over taking the match right down to the wire . The Champs needed 9 runs off the last over from the quick Hayward. It proved too big a task for the lower order batsmen & finally the champs fell short of the target by 2 runs.

Brief scores: Kolkata Tigers (146/5 , R Gavaskar 41, A Jhunjhunwala 33, A Adams 21 , R Khirid 17/2 ) won by 2 runs , Mumbai Champs ( 144/9 R Patil 52, N Astle 30, A Adams 3/35 )

Resource: www.indiancricketleague.in