Sathish steers Chennai’s Superstars into ICL finals

Dec 15:  Man of the match R. Sathish’s all-round performance (51 and 2/8) excelled in Chennai Superstars’s 93-run win over Kolkata Tigers in the first semi-final of the ICL-Twenty20 tournament

Riding on RajagopalSathish’s all-round performance (51 and 2/8)Chennai Superstars recorded an emphatic 93-run victory over Kolkata Tigers to storm into the finals of the inaugural ICL Twenty20 tournament played at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium here on Friday.

The Superstars vice-captain Sathish came into the middle when his side was tottering on 78-5. Sathish powered Superstars first with a blistering 51 runs of just 24 balls, studded with three massive sixes to take his team score to competitive 167. He later picked up two crucial wickets to help his side registering a convincing victory.

Sathish was well supported by Saravanan (24 not out from 16 balls). The duo added 61 runs for the seventh-wicket after Hemang Badani fell scoring a brisk 15.

Superstars captain Stuart Law took the final catch to dismiss Nantie Hayward off Tamil Kumaran’s bowling. It was a complete team effort, as four of the Superstars bowlers claimed two wickets each. Shabbir Ahmed (1/5) conceded only five runs from his three-over spell and made matters worst for the Tigers top-order batsmen.

“Its all coming together for us,” said Stuart Law at the presentation ceremony. Satish was declared the player of the match for his outstanding performance in a one-sided semi-final. When asked at the presentation ceremony if his team has a good chance of winning the tournament, “Yes we can,” said confident Satish.

It was a bone chilling evening and batting under lights was very difficult for the Craig McMillan’s team. The Kolkata Tigers were bundled out on a paltry score of 74 runs, after chasing the target of 168, which is now the lowest total of the tournament.

Ironically Kolkata tigers finished up at the top spot in the points tally after the league stages, but that’s the charm and unpredictable nature of this game as they lost in the semis after their worst performance of the championship thus far.

The match turned in Superstar’s favour when Tigers’ last hope Jhunjhunwala went for a big heave in an attempt to smash the ball towards mid-wicket, but found his stumps uprooted to Thiru Kumaran’s bowling. Stuart Law’s team will face either Delhi Jets or Chandigarh Lions, who will meet in the other semi-final in the evening today, in the grand finale on Sunday.

Chasing 168 for a berth in the final of the tournament, Tigers suffered an early setback when openers Darren Maddy (9) and Deep Dasgupta (1) went back into the pavilion without troubling the scorers too much.

Jhunjhunwala and Rajiv Kumar came out to the center to bail out their team but couldn’t do much. Jhunjhunwala was stranded in the middle, losing partners at regular intervals from the opposite end as Lance Klusener joined the party and it appeared as if all hopes were rested on the duo. Zulu did not last long either, courtesy of a tremendous catch from Thiru Kumaran off Satish’s bowling.

In-form Kolkata Tigers captain Craig McMillan walked out in the middle, hoping to guide his team to victory from yet another improbable situation. In his very first delivery, the Kiwi swung his bat to Satish, with the outcome being Chris Read and the rest appealing for a caught behind dismissal. The umpire was unsure and went to the third umpire, who gave the verdict in favour of McMillan.

Thiru Kumaran snapped the two big guns of the Kolkata Tigers - Craig McMillan and Abhiskeh Jhunjhunwala. He also took a terrific catch to dismiss the dangerous Lance Klusener.

The Kolkata Tigers will feature in one last encounter when they take on the loser of the second semi-final in the 3/4 Classification Match on Sunday afternoon.

BRIEF SCORES: Chennai Superstars 167 in 19.5 ovs (R. Sathish 51; S. Tarafdar 2/28). Calcutta Tigers 74 in 15.3 ovs (A. Jhunjhunwala 18, A. Jain 18; Kumaran 2/16, Sathish 2/8, Harvey 2/12).