Dinesh Mongia of Chandigarh Lions bowled out by Syed Mohammad of Chennai Superstars during ICL match at Panchkula on saturday. Theindiapost Photo : JagdishA quick fire innings of 67 runs off 32 balls by skipper Chris Cairns guided Chandigarh Lions to a total of 195 for 8 in the allotted 20 overs in the seventeenth match of the Edelweiss 20s Challenge being played at Tau Devi Lal Stadium, Panchkula on Saturday. After Chandigarh Lions’ skipper Chris Cairns won the toss and elected to bat first, Lions were off to a flying start as Lou Vincent and Mathew Elliot started the fireworks right from the word go. Elliot started the proceedings for Lions hitting Shabir Ahmed for a glorious glance towards fine leg for boundary in the second over and then Vincent joined the party by hitting Ahmed for two boundaries in the same over. Both the batsmen were into attacking mode as both launched an array of shots to put the Superstars’ bowlers onto back foot. Lions scorecard soon read 61 for o after five overs as Superstars went on to the defensive Kumaran dealt the first flow to Lions as he picked up
the wicket of Mathew Elliot (22) as Ian Harvey took a stunning catch to end Elliot’s 13 balls stay on the crease. Kumaran struck again in the same over as Munish Sharma(0) fell as he played a shot to mid on where substitute Devendran showed no hesitation in grabbing the catch.
The two quick dismissal triggered a collapse for Lions as Vincent(42) too fell in the next over with Shabbir Ahmed taking a comfortable catch at fine leg to make it 67 for 3 for Lions. Dinesh Mongia then joined TP Singh and both of them took the score to 82 before Syed Mohammed picked up the wicket of TP Singh (9) who gave a simple catch to Kumaran at long off. Dinesh Mongia(8) too departed in the same over as he was clean bowled by Syed Mohammed. Chetan Sharma and skipper Chris Cairns then steadied the innings for Lions as Cairns took up the challenge for Lions. He was in a devastating mood as he first smashed Syed Mohammed for a huge six in the 12th over and later hit two consecutive boundaries off the bowling of T Kumaran in the next over.
Chetan Sharma on the other hand kept on dealing in singles as Cairns unleashed an array of strokes. He first smotted a huge six of Ian Harvey in 14th over and later smashed two sixes and a boundary off the bowling of Mohammed in the next over to race to 48 runs off 23 balls. Lions score at that time was 150 for 5 in 15 overs. Kumaran picked up his third wicket in the form of Chetan Sharma s he clean bowled Sharma in the 17th over with Lions’ score being 161 for 6 in 16. 2 overs. Andrew Hall then joined Cairns as the duo carried the Lions total to 176 before Vignesh ended the innings of Chris Cairns (67) with Cairns
giving a simple catch to Ian Harvey. Hall and Sarabjit Singh then guided the Heroes’ innings to 187 for 7 before Shabiir Ahmed ended the innings of Andrew Hall(7) who gave an inside edged onto his stumps in the last over. Chandigarh Lions ended their innings at 195 for 8 in 20 overs. Sarabjeet Singh remained unbeaten on 9and Darryl Tuffy remained unbeaten on 4.