Sri Lankan Avishka Gunawardane combined well with young Abhinav Bali to enable Delhi Giants fashioning a nine-wicket win over Ahmedabad Rockets in the Indian Cricket League’s Edelweiss 20s Challenge league match played at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium here on Sunday.
Delhi Giants registered its second win of the tournament after chasing the scanty target of 108. Avishka Gunawardane was declared man of the match for his explosive half-century.
Chasing the modest total of 108, Giants opened their innings with Mohnish Mishra and Avishka Gunawardane. The duo had a cautious start despite being a paltry target to achieve.
They scored only nine runs in the first three overs. But by the end of fifth over they found their groove and Giants were placed comfortably at 25 for no loss.
It was Gunawardane who started the onslaught hoisting Patel for two massive sixes in the 6th over followed by an inside edge to the boundary. Rockets’ skipper Martyn was searching for a desperate breakthrough and therefore brought on his young off spinner P. Bhima Rao in the 9th over but Gunawardane was in no mood to spare anyone as he dealt with some serious boundaries.
Sriram got the Rockets their first breakthrough getting Mishra caught at long on for a well-made 18. Giants were cruising along well at 66/1 at that stage.
Abhinav Bali joined the explosive Gunawardane in the middle matching him stroke for stroke, taking the Giants score to 90/1 by the end of the 14th over. Gunawardane came up with a fiery 44-ball 55 while Bali dominated the 45-run unbroken winning second-wicket stand with a 21-ball 34.
Three consecutive hits to the boundary from Bali saw the Giants romp home in the 16th over.
Earlier, Rockets captain Damien Martyn, won the toss and decided to bat on a flat placid wicket. The left-right combination of Hinds and Dholpure opened the innings for Rockets’.
T Sudhindra, who has been admirably opening the Giants bowling attack with Shane Bond, infused first blood castling Dholpure in the second over reducing the Rockets at 3/1.
Some sloppy running and misunderstanding between the partners found Hinds short of the crease, sending both the Rockets openers back in the dugout in the 3rd over, leaving the scorecard reading 7/2. At the end of the 5th over the Rockets were struggling at 15/3 with Hinds, Dholpure & Goodwin back in the dugout.
Rockets captain Martyn and pinch hitter Rakesh Patel repaired the early setbacks and Rockets were at 24/3 by the end of the 7th over. Rockets innings read 36/4 through the halfway mark with hardly any signs of momentum in the innings. Boundaries were a distant dream for the Rockets, with both Sriram and Martyn strictly dealing with singles.
Giants’ trump card has been the prodigal spin talent of Ali Murtaza, who bowls in the crucial middle overs and his consistency of maintaining a tight leash on the best of batsmen continued in this match. Rockets were still struggling at 69/4 at the end of the 16th over.
Sriram and Martyn battled hard for the Rockets stitching their half-century partnership. The Rockets batsmen could not be able to accelerate their scoring rate. Reetinder Singh Sodhi helped himself to a six and four off Jai Prakash Yadav to take the team’s score past the 100-run mark and their innings finally ended at 107/6 with only 8 boundaries in the entire innings.
Brief scores: Ahmedabad Rockets 107 for six in 20 overs (Damien Martyn 44, S. Sriram 31) lost to Delhi Giants 111 for one in 15.3 overs (Avishka Gunawardene 55 not out, Abhinav Bali 34 not out).
TEAMS
Ahmedabad Rockets: Wavell Hinds, Sachin Dholpure, Damien Martyn (C), Murray Goodwin, Sridharan Sriram, Heath Streak, Reetinder Sodhi, Jason Gillespie, Rakesh Patel, Pallav Vora (W), Baburao Yadav
Delhi Giants: Avishka Gunawardene, Mohnish Mishra, Marvan Atapattu (C), Abbas Ali, Abhinav Bali, Nic Pothas (W), Jai Prakash Yadav, Dale Benkenstein, Taduri Sudhindra, Shane Bond, Ali Murtaza
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