By IANS
Gurgaon : Kolkata Tigers defeated Delhi Giants by one run in a thrilling match of the Edelweiss Twenty20 Challenge of the Indian Cricket League (ICL) at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium here Sunday.
The match had a tense finish with Giants, chasing 142 for four, needing three runs off the last delivery but could score only a single.
Electing to bat, Tigers’ openers – Deep Dasgupta (35 of 21 balls) and Lance Klusener (62 not out) – gave them a perfect start, putting 57 runs in 7.3 overs for the opening stand before Dasgupta was caught by Avishka Gunawardene off Jai Prakash Yadav.
Klusener in the company of Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (16) and captain Craig MacMilan (21) hit the Giants’ bowling to all corners of the ground to take Tigers to 142 for four in their allotted 20 overs.
In reply, the Giants started their run chase at a breezy note with the opening duo of Gunawardene (35) and Mohnish Mishra (27) scoring 41 runs in just four overs. But Nantie Hayward put the brakes on their scoring, picking up Mishra’s wicket.
With the fall of Mishra, Dhruv Mahajan joined Gunawardene at the crease and when it looked that the duo would take the match away from Tigers, Upul Chandana picked up three wickets in three overs and left the match evenly poised.
Chandana took Mahajan’s wicket in the 11th over and then followed it up with Guwanardene and Giants’ skipper Marvan Atapattu (9).
A 25-run seventh wicket partnership between Dishant Yagnik (11 not out) and pacer Taduri Sudhindra (14) brought the Giants closer to the victory.
Needing 14 runs of Klusener’s last over, Giants lost Sudhindra in the second ball but were in no mood to give up without a fight and immediately after coming to the pitch Shane Bond (7 not out) hit a boundary.
However, needing three runs of the final ball, they could only manage a single.
Chandana’s fine spell of 16 for three in four overs earned him the man-of-the-match.
Brief Scores: (Kolkata Tigers 142/4: Deep Dasgupta 35, Lance Klusener 62 not out; J P Yadav 1-23 Delhi Giants 141/8: A Gunawardene 35, Mohnish Mishra 27; U Chandana 3-16)