The Delhi Jets posted a not-so-healthy 148 in their 20 overs allowed to make a bid for the top prize of a million dollars that this event holds out for the winning team.
Chandigarh side beat Delhi Jets to enter the Indian Cricket League final
CHANDIGARH: In the last stages of the league matches the run-riot in the ICL had become rampant.
But just add the twist of pressure to the other demands of performing in a semifinal and it all comes crumbling down.
The Delhi Jets posted a not-so-healthy 148 in their 20 overs allowed to make a bid for the top prize of a million dollars that this event holds out for the winning team.
Chandigarh Lions did not maul it down easy but they did overhaul it with four wickets and two balls to spare.
It was again captain Chris Cairns this time, in the company of Andrew Hall, who got the innings together towards the end. Hall drove the final four to settle the issue in his team’s favour.
The Jets seemed to have got their strategy a tad off as they still had six wickets in hold even as the innings folded up.
A woeful 57 for the loss of two after 10 overs was never a healthy trend and despite the late acceleration by Abbas Ali (57) and Taduri Prakash Sudhindra (33) the final tally still fell short of the 150 mark.
The Lions struck early enough as Andrew Hall had Monish Mishra caught by Sarabjit Singh behind the stumps. Next came in Maravn Atapattu.
The captain moving up the order was an apt indication of his intent to take the game head-on and given the form he had displayed in the run-up to the semis it was a logical move.
It took the guile of another experienced eye to detect his edginess about getting the score going and Dinesh Mongia put in another interesting spell with the ball as he clean bowled Atapattu as the Lankan stepped out for the big heave-ho.
The next wicket came in the 13th over and it was again Mongia doing the conjuring. Dale Benkenstien had been around for a full 52 minutes and had managed just 28 runs looking to anchor a team that had largely been bereft of a solid opening by the ones who came in first in earlier matches.
Mongia put a slow one on the off side enticing Benkenstien to go for the big one. He found Daryl Tuffey at mid wicket. Abbas Ali had been consistently piling up the runs and with his confidence growing he was looking decidedly dangerous.
With enough wickets in hand, Ali must have been just coiling up to spring up the big hits in the final over before he got too adventurous on a Amit Uniyal good length delivery that eventually nestled into the same hands of TP Singh at long on.
The last over yielded just five runs and the Lions had a chase that looked very much achievable.
They did not begin too well. Sudhindra was back in the business end of things with as he claimed the first two wickets beginning with opener Hamish Marshall (12) and then affecting a caught and bowled for danger man TP Singh (6) to head back.
By the 10th over at 74 the Lions were very much on track as far as the run rate went even though they were four wickets down.
It was actually the tail that packed the major Lion assault as Dinesh Mongia (23) walked in fifth down followed by Chris Cairns and Andrew Hall.
Cairns smacked 26 from 18 while Andrew Hall managed 20 from 11. Both were unbeaten as they led their team home with just two balls to spare.
Ali’s knock of 57 on a pitch not too conducive for batters earned him the man-of-the-match. In the end it was the Jets allowing away 20 extras to the Lions 10 that seemed to make the crucial difference.
Scoreboard
Delhi Jets: D Benkenstein c Tuffey b Mongia 28, M Mishra c Sarabjit Singh b Hall 1, M Atapattu b Mongia 17, S Abbas Ali c Singh b Uniyal 57, T Sudhindra not out 33, JP Yadav not out 2, Extras (b 2, lb 4, w 3, nb 1) 10, Total (4 wickets; 20 overs) 148; Bowling: A Hall 4-0-23-1, D Tuffey 4-0-25-0, A Uniyal 4-0-33-1, D Mongia 4-0-32-2, C Cairns 4-0-29-0
Chandigarh Lions: H Marshall b Sudhindra 12, Imran Farhat b Mahajan 19, TP Singh c & b Sudhindra 6, Chetan Sharma c Abid Nabi b Sudhindra 6, Manish Sharma b Murtaza 19, D Mongia b Abid Nabi 22, C Cairns not out 26, A Hall not out 20, Extras (b 4, lb 7, w 6, nb 3) 20, Total (6 wickets; 19.4 overs) 151; Bowling: S Srivastava 3-0-29-0, T Sudhindra 4-0-27-3, Abid Nabi 3.4-0-31-1, D Mahajan 1-0-6-1, A Murtaza 4-0-22-1, JP Yadav 3-0-19-0, D Benkenstein 1-0-6-0
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