By IANS
Hyderabad : Hosts Hyderabad Heroes maintained their formidable record at home by beating Mumbai Champs by seven runs in the 28th match of the Edelweiss 20s Challenge in the Indian Cricket League (ICL).
The win at the Lal Bahadur Stadium here Monday night was Heroes’ fifth win in a row.
Heroes’ captain Chris Harris won the toss and elected to bat. The hosts riding on a brilliant 78 by Abdul Razzaq and Ambati Rayudu’s 55 made 176 for two in the allotted 20 overs. Razzaq was declared the Man of the Match.
Razzaq and Rayudu worked hard to get a good partnership of over 55 runs taking the score to 98/1 at the end of the 14th over. Razzaq demolished the Mumbai bowlers and brought about his fifty with a lovely boundary in the 15th over.
The partnership was going strong with both batsmen playing shots all across the ground. They got to their century stand off only 68 balls in the 16th over. Rayudu got his fifty with a boundary to fine leg in the 17th over.
With three overs to go, the Heroes were all set for a big onslaught, placed handsomely at 153/1. The partnership finally came to an end by a spectacular catch by Tino Best to send Rayudu back to the dugout after a well-made 55.
In reply, the Champs came out with a positive intent with opener Dheeraj Jadhav (15) going after Justin Kemp in the second over with two big hits to the boundary. However, Razzaq came to the party with the ball, getting Jadhav caught behind to the keeper leaving the Champs in a bit of bother at 22/2.
At the end of the fifth over, the Champs were placed at 52/2 scoring at over 10 runs per over. A 50 run partnership of only 33 balls between Robin Morris (56) and Raviraj Patil (51) kept Mumbai right in the hunt to achieve the mammoth target of 177 at the eight over mark.
At the half way mark, the Champs needed 86 runs off 60 balls with eight wickets in hand. Just when Patil was running away with the match, Harris trapped the young Mumbai batsman leg before wicket for a well made 51 in the 11th over.
With three overs to go the Champs needed 48 off 18 balls at a humongous 16 runs per over. Morris took the initiative and with some lusty blows took the match right down to the last over, with the Champs needing 18 runs off six balls. In the end the Champs fell short in their valiant run chase by only seven runs.
Brief Scores: Hyderabad Heroes 176/2 (Razzaq 78, Rayudu 55, Iyer 1/25). Mumbai Champs 169/9 (R Patil 51, Morris56, Razzaq 3/31). Hyderabad Heroes won by 7 runs.