Spirited Kolkata Tigers players held on their nerves in the crunch moments as they clinched a solitary run victory over its formidable opponents Delhi Giants in a virtual quarterfinal match of the Edelweiss 20s Challenge played at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium here on Sunday.
Man of the match leg spinner Upul Chandana fashioned Tigers’ victory with a brilliant spell of 3/14. Craig McMillan won the toss for the Tigers and elected to bat. The Tigers opened their quarterfinal challenge with a new combination of Lance Klusener and Deep Das Gupta.
The gamble paid off for the Tigers as the duo had a cautious start to place Tigers’ at 27/0 at the end of the 4th over with only 3 hits to the boundary. They soon got into the groove with Dasgupta freeing his arms as he scored 17 runs off a Dhruv Mahajan over.
Both the openers worked up a good partnership to take the Tigers to a comfortable position of 54 for no loss by the end of 7th over. The Giants got their first breakthrough via JP Yadav who dismissed the dangerous Dasgupta for a well-made 35.
The Tigers were placed 68/1 at the half way mark. The Giants were banking on the wily Murtaza, to contain the Tigers' batsmen, especially Klusener who was playing the sheet anchor role to perfection.
Zulu scored his 2nd fifty of the tournament off 52 balls. Tigers were still to get on with their onslaught with just three overs to go and they were placed at 118/2 with Klusener holding the fort and looking for a big score.
A superb final over from Murtaza helped the Giants to restrict the Tigers at the modest score of 142/4 in their stipulated 20 overs.
Chasing the scanty target of 143, Giants came out with a positive frame of mind with Mohnish Mishra taking the seamer Hayward to the cleaners with two big hits to the fence.
Just when Mishra was taking the match away from the grip of Tigers, McMillan came up with a stunning catch to end his lovely little cameo of 27. Giants were right on course with their scorecard reading 52/1 at the end of the 5th over.
Giants needed only 66 more runs of 60 balls with 9 wickets in hand at the half way mark. Giants were cruising along well but Gunawardane made the mess of it with a rash shot off Chandana giving away his wicket, leaving his side at 91/3 needing another 52 from 42 balls with 8 runs per over.
Chandana got into its act and put the Tigers right back on track after scalping the big wicket of Atapattu making it an open game with Giants’ reeling at 96/4 in the 15th over.
Abbas Ali bad form continued at the Edelweiss 20s Challenge as he fell cheaply for 1, leaving the Giants in complete disarray at 99/5. The Giants middle order fell like nine pins with their top seven batsmen were back in the dugout by the end of 17th over, with the scorecard reading a sorry 107/7.
Tigers had the match in their grasp but all of a sudden Sudhindra and Yagnik picked up 11 runs off a McMillan over to bring the match alive, with the Giants needing 18 runs off the last 2 overs.
A fine tight over from Nechim left the Giants needing 14 off the last over. The match had its anxious moments as it went down to the last ball with Giants needing 3 runs of the last delivery. But Giants eventually fell short of a modest target by only a run.
Brief Scores: Kolkata Tigers: 142/4 (Klusener 62, Dasgupta 35, Yadav 1/23) bt Delhi Giants: 141/8 (Mishra 27, Gunawardane 35, Chandana 3/14).
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