Raviraj Patil hit a confident half century but it was a disappointing day for Mumbai Champs as they lost by two runs to Kolkata Tigers in the fourth match of the Indian Cricket League at Tau Devi Lal Stadium at Panchkula on Wednesday.
Chasing a target of 146 runs off 20 overs, Raviraj Patil came after opener Saman Jayatha was clean bowled by Andre Adams in the first over of the Champs innings. Patil and S Das took the charge then and unleashed an array of strokes to peg Tigers’ hopes back. Patil first hit Eklak Ahmed for two consecutive fours in the fourth over before giving the same treatment to Andre Adams in the next over. He was at his glorious best when he hit Klusener for a towering six in the eight over to move to 42 while in the next over, he punched out another six off the bowling of Singh.
Patil hit eight fours and two sixes to reach 52 before he was snapped up by PL Das at point off the bowling of Craig McMillan in the tenth over. Subhjit Paul too departed after contributing 27 off 37 balls in the 13th over with Champs needing 54 runs off 43 balls. But a late charge by Van Der Wath (10) ) and Nathan
Astle (30) took the score to 127 before Astle was clean bowled by Craig McMillan in the 17th over with Champs needing 20 runs off 20 balls. McMillan struck again in the same over removing Van Der Wath with a straight delivery that found him plumb before the wicket to make it 128 for 5 in 17 overs. With Champs needing 18 runs off 16 balls, Nanty Hayward struck again in the 18th over picking up the wicket of Kiran Powar (0) before S N Khanolkar was run out off the last ball of the over. With 17 runs required off the last two over, Khirid and Tino Best provided some respite conjuring up eight runs off the penultimate over before Nantie Haywards was involved in a successful run out of Tino Best. Haywards then removed Khirid on the next ball with Champs needing six runs of 2 balls but Champs could not finish up the good work done by Patil and Astle as they lost by two runs. For Tigers, Andre Adams picked up three wickets giving away 35 runs.
Earlier, a fine patient knock of 41 off 36 balls by Rohan Gawaskar propelled Kolkata Tigers to a competitive total of 146 for 5 . Van Der Wath opened the attack for Mumbai Champs but he was greeted by two glorious shots in the covers to the boundary by Tigers opener Subhomoy Das in the first over. After Das hit Tino Best for a boundary off the first ball of the second over, Lance Klusener too joined the party hitting Best for tow fours in the same over. But Best had his revenge in the fourth over of the Champs innings when he clean bowled Lance Klusener with a slower delivery at an individual score of 9 runs.
Champs’ score at that moment was 29 for 1 and youngster Abhishek Jhunjhunwala then joined Das. Jhunjhunwala announced his arrival by hitting Tino Best for a four in the same over and then hit another for off the bowling of Aussie Michale Kasprowicz in the sixth over. Just when it looked that both Das and Jhunjhunwala were finding their rhythm, R D Khirid struck in his very first over trapping Das lbw at the individual score of 21. Tigers’ skipper Craig MCMillan(9) too went cheaply as Micahael Kasprowicz picked his second wicket of the match by clean bowling McMillan in the tenth over with Tigers’ score being 62 for 3. Rohan Gawaskar then joined Jhunjhunwala (34) who in the meanwhile kept dealing in singles and occasional boundaries before being stumped by
Champs’ wicketkeeper Subhojit Paul off the bowling of Khirid in the 14th over with the Tigers’ score being 92 for 4.Dasgupta (4) too departed early as he gave a simple return catch to Avinash Yadav in the 17th over. Finally, it was the duo of Rohan Gawaskar (41) and Andre Adams (21) who propelled the Tigers’ innings to a competitive total of 146 for 5. Andre Adams also smotted two huge sixes in Tino Best’s last over to provide some solidarity to Tigers’ total.