A fluent half-century by Abhishek Jhunjhunwala(62 off 57 balls) coupled with a three-wicket haul by Andre Adams (3 for22) guided Kolkata Tigers to a 17-run win over Chandigarh Lions in the allotted 20 overs in the twenty second match of the Indian Cricket League Edelweiss Challenge being played at the Tau Devil al Stadium, Gurgaon on Wednesday.
After skipper Craig McMilan won the toss and decided to bat first, Tigers were off to a flyer with opener SG Das hitting three consecutive boundaries in the first over bolwed by Andrew Hall. Butt Andrew Hall removed a danger looking Paul(12) in the same over trapping him lbw with Tigers’ score being 14 for 1. Abhishek Jhunjhunwala then joined Lance Klusener and both took the score to 92 in 12 overs. Both kept in dealing in singles and occasional boundaries as Jhunjhunwala first smashed Luv Abhlish for a boundary in the fifth over and then hit Vincent for a four in the ninth over. Klusener too came into his stride as hoisted Dinesh Mongia for a huge six in the tenth over to complete the 50-run partnership for the second wicket.
Klusener then smashed TP Singh for a boundary and a six in the over before being run out in the twelfth over as Mongia’s direct throw shattered the stumps with Tigers’ score being 92 for 2 in 12 overs. Shibsagar Singh then joined Jhunjhunwala and he soon showed his intentions as he smashed chetan Sharma for a towering six in the 14th over before Jhunjhunwala smashed cairns for a six in the next over to move closer to his fifty. Darryl Tuffey broke the partnership in the 16th over as Singh(18) gave a simple catch to TP Singh at deep mid wicket to make it 126 for in 15.2 overs for Tigers. Luv Abhlish then clean bowled Andre Adams (1) in the next over before Hall picked up the important wicket of Craig McMillan(4) who gave a simple catch to Mathew Elliot at covers to make it 135 for 5 in 17.3 overs for Tigers. Jhujhunwala then smashed Abhlish for two boundaries in the nineteenth over to take past the Tigers’ score to 150 before JhunJhunwala(62) was run out in the last over. Hall picked up the wicket of Rohan Gawaskar(13) in the last over to restrict Tigers to 165 for 7 in 20
overs.
Chasing a target of 161 runs in 20 overs, Chandigarh Lions were off to a bad start as opener Mathew Elliot was clean bowled by Andre Adams in the third over With Lions’ score being 9 for 1 in 2.1 overs. Sarabjit Singh then joined Lou Vincent who first smashed Adams for a boundary in the same over and then hit Nantie Hayward for a boundary in the fourth over. Sarabjit Singh too joined Vincent as he smashed Adams for a boundary in the fifth over. Nantie Hayward removed Sarabjit Singh(9) in the next over as he gave a simple catch to Shibsagar Singh to make it 28 for 2 in 5.4 overs for Lions. AN Ahemd removed danger man Lou Vincent (14) in the seventh over as Vincent was clean bowled by a n in swinging delivery. Ahmed struck again in his next over as he picked up
his second wicket in the form of Andrew Hall (8) who failed to read the line of the ball. With Lions’ score being 43 for 4 in 9 overs,skipper Chris cairns then joined Chetan Sharma but Cairns(14) too did not last long as he gave a simple catch to SG Das at long off to make it 59 for 5 in 10.3 overs. TP Singh then joined Chetan Sharma before Jhunjhunwala picked up the wicket of Sharma (6) who was stumped by Tigers’ keeper Dasgupta in the 13th over. With Lions needing 93 runs of 42 balls, it was TP Singh who stepped up the tempo for Lions hitting Upul Chandana for three consecutive sixes in the 14th over.
Singh and Munish Sharma took the Lions score to 111 for 6 in 15 overs with Lions’ needing 50 runs off 30 balls. Singh and Sharma completed the 50 partnership in just 23 balls as they took Lions within the reach of the target. But NAdre Adams finally broke the partnership as he picked up the wicket of Munish Sharma (23) who gave a simple catch to Dasgupta in the 17th over. Adams struck again in the same over as he removed TP Singh (34) as Jhunjhunwala took a fine catch at long on. Ahmed then removed Darryl Tuffey (8) in the next over to restrict Lions’ total but with Lions’ needing 24 runs off last two overs, Dinesh Mongia hoisted Haywards for a six but Haywards removed Mongia (12) off the next ball to signal win for Tigers.