Mumbai Champs beat Ahmedabad Rockets by 13 runs

Hyderabad, Sep 27 (UNI) Robin Morris's match winning 69 off 62 balls, including five fours and three sixes, propelled Mumbai Champs to register their first win of the tournament defeating Ahmedabad Rockets by 13 runs in the Indian Cricket League (ICL) 20-20 domestic tournament here today.

Earlier, Ahmedabad Rockets captain S Sriram won the toss and elected to field. The Champs got off to a good start with their in-form openers Paul and Morris putting on 43 runs for the first wicket.

A solid 20 from south-paw captain Dheeraj Jadhav enabled Champs to set the Rockets a target of 141 runs. The most successful bowler for the Rockets was rookie Kunal Lal, who claimed 2/27 in his allotted four overs.

The Rockets' chase saw opener Sachin Dholpure get off to a good start, scoring 28 off 20 balls. However, the fall of his wicket in the fifth over gave the Champs the upper hand. Cheap dismissals of the other recognised Rockets batsmen saw them in deep trouble at 88/6 in the 14th over. The architect of the Champs bowling was left arm spinner Avinash Yadav, who got three important wickets in four overs.

The only other significant batting contribution from the Rockets' line-up came in the form of Pallav Vora's 20 off 15 balls. In the end, the Rockets fell short of the target by 13 runs.

Morris was declared Man of the Match.

Brief Scores: Mumbai Champs 140/6 in 20 overs (Morris 69, Jadhav 20, Lal 2/27) Ahmedabad Rockets 127 in 18.5 overs (Dholpure 28, Vora 20, Yadav 3/20) UNI XC VA VV AB NS2020