Cricket

ICL: Hyderabad Heroes beat Royal Bengal Tigers

Hyderabad Heroes survived a scare before scraping through a three-wicket victory over Royal Bengal Tigers in an edge-of-the-seat semi-final in the ICL 20-20 championship played at the Sardar Patel stadium here on Tuesday.

Chasing a target of 162 runs to win, Heroes overcame some jitters to reach the target with three balls to spare and set up a summit clash with the Lahore Badshahs in the Twenty20 event. Heroes openers Jimmy Maher (14 off 15 balls) and Ibrahim Khaleel (32 off 20 balls) made a good start scoring 44 runs in 5.5 overs but Klusener struck twice in the sixth over, reducing the Heroes to 48 for two in 5.4 overs.

The first to go was Maher, who looking to play a lofty shot, completely mistimed it as Sri Lankan all-rounder Upul Chandana caught him at mid-on. One ball later, Klusener struck again when his slower delivery bamboozled Khaleel and kissed the bails off while the opener was trying to paddle him away for a four. Ambati Rayudu (14 off 16 balls) and Abdul Razzaq (26 off 18 balls) then joined hands and tried to steady the ship, stitching a 32-ball 40 run partnership, with the help of one four and three sixes. But disaster struck again when both of them were sent back to the hut within a span of three deliveries between the 11th and 12th over to leave the Heroes tottering at 89 for four in 11.2 overs.

Binny responded well, hitting some lusty blows to bring down the run-rate before he was caught by Dasgupta off a Eklak Ahmid delivery. He scored 45 runs off 26 balls, studded with two fours and as many sixes. With six runs needed in the last over, Syed Shahabuddin (1) joined skipper Chris Harris (5 off 2 balls) in the middle as the duo kept their cool and took their team to victory with a four, which came off the blade of Harris, with three balls to spare.

Earlier invited to bat first, the Tigers were gasping for breath when they were reduced to seven for two after two overs but Lance Klusener and Rohan Gavaskar came to the party and stitched together the highest partnership of the tournament ie a 145-run fourth wicket stand to help Royal Bengal Tigers
post a respectable total of 161 for four in the allotted 20 overs. The Bengal team were reeling at 10-3 but the duo launched a counterattack that stunned the Heroes. Klusener struck an unbeaten 54-ball 78 while Gavaskar made a fluent 74 off only 47 deliveries.

Tags: Hyderabad Heroes, ICL, Royal Bengal Tigers