Giants stand tall

Delhi win a low-scoring match against Hyderabad Heroes by seven runs, thanks to Mahajan’s last over heroics

NEW DELHI: History was made in the Edelweiss 20s Challenge on Monday, as Gurgaon hosted its very first ICL match, and succeeded in creating a winning home feeling, as the local Delhi Giants held their nerve to beat the Hyderabad heroes by seven runs. The key to the match was a fine all-round performance from Druv Mahajan.

With all predictions describing an easy-paced wicket which should yield healthy runs for the batsmen, it is little wonder that Giants captain Marvan Atapattu elected to bat after he won the toss, entrusting first use to his left-right hand opening combination of Gunawardene & Mishra.

The duo tinged their innings with a hue of caution, and yet managed to garner a creditable 18 runs off the first three overs. Hyderabad’s Justin Kemp proved the breaker however, as the fourth over saw him scoop Mishra’s wicket and reduce the Giants to 22/1. Youngster Dhruv Mahajan proved that he can be a reliable number three after that by combining with Gunawardene as the Giants reached a decent mark of 61/1 at the end of the 9th over. Mahajan’s promising innings of 36 came to an end in the 13th over, after he tried a little too much to pick up the scoring rate against the bowling of Reddy. Gunawardene, who played an uncharacteristically slow innings, was then foxed by Boje  and the Giants found themselves on 86/3 in the 14th over.

The 100 came up for the Giants at the end of the 15th over with Abbas Ali & Bali at the wicket, and the two did what they could to life their side’s overall run rate. Two timely scalps by Razzaq, however, sent Bali & JP Yadav back  reducing the Giants to 115/5. The Giants could not get any momentum going and were finally restricted to 137/8 in their allotted 20 overs.

When the Heroes came out to have their own go with the bat, it was the unexpected, and unfamiliar dup of Anirudh Singh & Shashank Nag who appeared to face the music. Their time was not a happy one however, as Nag found himself back in the hutch after making only 3, as the Heroes’s total stood as low as 4/1 as late as the 2nd over. 

By just the 5th over, the Giants had lost all feeling of disappointment, as the Heroes were 17/4, and victory for Delhi seemed in sight. Ten overs in, Binny and Kemp were still battling it out for the Heroes at 40/4. Surprisingly, however, the two were in the process building a useful partnership of 50 runs off 47 balls.

Shane Bond came back for his second spell in the 15th over. When he snared Kemp for 33   it was just the tonic for the Kiwi paceman.

With 5 overs to go the Heroes needed 55 runs off only 30 balls . Even though Razzaq was well stumped by Yagnik, leaving the Heroes scorecard reeling at 84/6, there was a twist in the tail. The Bond’s penultimate over cost 16 runs, and suddenly the Heroes thought they might pummel 15 runs to win off the last 6 balls. Young Dhruv Mahajan had other ideas. Binny and Harris bothg departed off the first two balls of the over, and in the end Delhi eased to a seven run victory.

Scoreboard:
Delhi Giants: A Gunawardene st Khaleel b Boje 28, M Mishra c Rayudu b Kemp 14, D Mahajan c Harris b Reddy 36, Abbas Ali c A Singh b Absolem 16, A Bali c Khaleel b A Razzaq 12, JP Yadav b A Razzaq 1, M Atapattu lbw b A Razzaq 9, TP Sudhindra c Rayudu b A Razzaq 1, S Bond not out 4, D Yagnik not out 6, Extras: (b-8, lb-2) 10; Total: (8 wickets; 20 overs) 137 (6.85 runs per over), FoW: 1-22, 2-83, 3-86, 4-113, 5-115, 6-119, 7-121, 8-127, Bowling: Razzaq 4-0-23-4, Kemp 3-0-17-1, Absolem 4-0-30-1, Harris 3-0-23-0, Boje 4-0-23-1, Reddy 2-0-11-1 5.50

Hyderabad Heroes: PS Nag c Bali b Sudhindra 3, A Singh c Bond b Sudhindra 3, A Rayudu b Sudhindra 6, N Boje c Mahajan b Murtaza 2, J Kemp c Yagnik b Bond 33, S Binny c Yadav b Mahajan 50, A Razzaq st Yagnik b Yadav 2, C Harris c sub b Mahajan 20, I Khaleel not out 1, A Absolem not out 6, Extras: (lb-2, w-2) 4; Total (8 wickets; 20 overs) 130 (6.50 runs per over), FoW: 1-4, 2-14, 3-15, 4-17, 5-78, 6-84, 7-123, 8-123, Bowling: S Bond 4-0-28-1 (2w), TP Sudhindra 4-0-25-3, A Murtaza 4-0-20-1, D Mahajan 2-0-13-2, JP Yadav 4-0-26-1, A Bali 2-0-16-0