Kolkata Tigers scores Emphatic Win

Chennai, Feb 8 (UNI) In the 13th match of the ICL 50s being played here at the Mayajaal Sports Village, Kolkata Tigers defeated Chandigarh Lions by three wickets.

After winning the toss and elected to bat in a must win match, Chandigarh Lions managed to put a score of 272 for the loss of 7 wickets in the 50 overs.

The Lions innings was off to a shaky start as both openers Chetan Sharma and Manish Sharma were back in the pavilion by the 5th over, with the score on 16.

This brought in captain Dinesh Mongia and T P Singh who put on 102 runs to take Lions to a safer position after their horrid start.

Playing captain's knock Dinesh Mongia struck a solid 108 off 129 balls hitting six boundaries and four sixes.

T P Singh gave him able support with a 64 balls 47. Singh's wicket brought in Reetinder Sodhi who scored quick 62 off 73 balls hitting five boundaries and a six. He along with Dinesh took the score past 220 in 45th over. After the departure of Mongia and Sodhi rest of the Lions wickets fell cheaply.

The stand out performance for the Tigers came from Abu Nachim took three for 52 and Syed Ahmed who took two for 33 to keep the Lions total in check.

Chasing the target, Kolkata Tigers did not have good start.

Captain Deep Dasgupta was retired hurt in the fourth over. This brought in Abhishek Jhunjhunwala who along with Parviz Aziz put on a partnership of 48 runs. Aziz scored 32 off 26 balls hitting five boundaries.

Kolkata Tigers then lost three quick wickets in the span of four overs taking the score to 124 for four in 18.3 overs.

Rohan Gavaskar steadied the ship with two crucial partnerships.

The first with Ali H Zaidi yielded 23 runs while the second with Abu Nachim for 76 runs took the Tigers to the winning position.

Rohan Gavaskar scored 67 off 82 balls hitting three sixes and three boundaries. Abu Nachim scored brilliant 45 off 41 balls and was declared man of the match.

For Chandigarh Lions, the pick of bowlers was Rajesh Sharma who took three for 31 runs.

With both the teams out of competition, Chennai Superstars will clash with Delhi Jets in the finals of ICL 50s at Mayajaal Sports Village on February 10.

Brief scores: Kolkata Tigers 311 for seven wickets in 50 overs (Rohan Gavaskar 67,Abhishek Jhunjhunwala 47,Abu Nachim 45,Rajesh Sharma 3/31,Dinesh Mongia 2/41) defeated Chandigarh Lions 272 for seven wickets in 50 overs (Dinesh Mongia 108 , Reetinder Singh Sodhi 62 , T P Singh 47 , Abu Nachim 3/52 , Syed Ahmad 2/ 33) by three wickets.

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