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Delhi Jets, Kolkata Tigers in semifinals
MEMORABLE: Delhi Jets captain Marvan Atapattu after winning the Player of the Match award on Wednesday.
PANCHKULA: Marvan Atapattu knows when to give his best. He chose the occasion to get cracking with an innings that signified his mature approach to batting. His crucial knock carried Delhi Jets into the semifinals of the Indian Cricket League. Delh Jets made the grade with a six-wicket win over Chennai Superstars.
Joining Delhi Jets, Chennai Superstars and Chandigarh Lions in the semifinals was Kolkata Tigers which overcame Hyderabad Heroes by 52 runs at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium here on Wednesday.
The evening was marked by some scintillating fielding. Two spectacular run outs by veteran members of the Hyderabad Heroes — Inzamam-ul-Haq and Chris Harris — towards the end of the Tigers innings stood out. Inzamam ran out Deep Dasgupta with a direct hit from point with a single stump to aim at. Harris did better. He picked and threw in a flash, airborne in his follow through, to leave Lance Klusener stranded.
Craig McMillan was again in a superb nick for Kolkata Tigers. His effortless strokeplay was a treat as he played cricketing shots to rattle the Heroes attack. His 35-ball 50 with two fours and four sixes was a motivated effort after Darren Maddy and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala set the trend. Jhunjhunwala later came up with an incredible catch to dismiss Nicky Boje as seamer Sujay Tarafdar struck three early blows to put Tigers in a commanding position.
The Superstars did not have much at stake from the match this afternoon. Having made the semifinals, Superstars decided to rest skipper Stuart Law, and put in to bat, it managed to post 178. The total was challenging given the Superstars attack but Atapattu had made a resolve to play his role of a professional to perfection.
Coach Madan Lal had been hoping for Atapattu to play a big innings even though the Sri Lankan had been in good nick, aggregating 79 runs in his previous three innings. His strokeplay was calculated and timing ideal as he compiled an unbeaten 64 off 43 balls with six fours and two sixes.
Superstars made a racy start to the innings through G. Vignesh (18) and Ian Harvey (30) and maintained the tempo following a neat 37 by Chris Read. In the latter part of the innings, R. Sathish (29) and V. Saravanan (20 not out) put pressure on the bowlers to enable Superstars stay in the hunt.
Delhi Jets was not overawed by the target and the chase was planned well by openers Taufiq Umar (20) and Monish Mishra (37). And then the stage was dominated by Atapattu, giving Delhi victory in the final over.
The scores:
Chennai Superstars 174 for six in 20 overs (Chris Read 37, Ian Harvey 30) lost to Delhi Jets 178 for four in 19.2 overs (Marvan Atapattu 64 not out, Monish Mishra 37).
Kolkata Tigers 168 for five in 20 overs (Craig McMillan 50, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala 33, Darren Maddy 32) bt Hyderabad Heroes 115 in 16.2 overs (Abdul Razzaq 37, Sujay Tarafdar three for 20).
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