Delhi Giants beat Mumbai Champs by six wickets in ICL

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Delhi Giants beat Mumbai Champs by six wickets in ICL

CALCUTTA: Delhi Giants beat Mumbai Champs by six wickets in the second match of the Edelweiss Twenty20 challenge of the Indian Cricket League (ICL) here at the Tau Devi Lal stadium.

Riding on the superb bowling performance by Ali Murtaza (two for 16), the Giants restricted Champs to 115 for five in the stipulated 20 overs before Abbas Ali's powerful 64 saw them through with an over to spare Monday night.

The Champs' skipper Nathan Astle elected to bat and the openers got off to a cautious start with fiery Shane Bond opening with the new ball.

The Giants' disciplined bowling performance reduced the Champs to 84 for four in the 15th over.

Young left-arm spinner Ali Murtaza and South African Dale Benkestein bowled tight overs in the middle of the innings. Murtaza picked two important wickets including that of in-form opener Dheeraj Jadhav.

Giants lost early wickets with Monish Sharma and skipper Marvan Atapattu back in the dugout by the third over with just 11 runs on the board. However, Abbas counterattacked with vengeance and hit 16 runs off a Dino Best over.

Michael Kasprowicz got into the act getting rid of A. Bali and reducing Giants to 55 for four. The match was delicately poised at that stage but Abbas was rock solid and along with Nic Pothas (18) added 61 runs to take the Giants home.

Brief Scores: Mumbai Champs 115 for five (Nathan Astle 32, D Jadhav 27, Ali Murtaza two for 16). Delhi Giants 116 for four (Abbas Ali 64, Nic Pothas 18, Van Der Wath one for 17).

[naz]