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Superstars cruises to victory

A. Joseph Antony

HYDERABAD: Spurred by the fastest 50 by a side in the Indian Cricket League, Chennai Superstars sailed to a six-wicket victory over Dhaka Warriors in the second match at the Lal Bahadur Stadium here on Saturday. Set a target of 143 for victory, the Chennai side cruised home with two overs to spare.

If Dhaka Warriors was quick to that milestone, the Chennai team was swifter, crossing the landmark in just 2.5 overs. Such was the rough treatment meted out to Tapash Baisya and Manjural Islam Rana by openers Ian Harvey (28, 13b, 2x4, 3x6) and Ganapathi Vignesh (25, 10b, 5x4), that tweaker Mohd. Rafique came into the firing line in the fourth over itself.

His arm ball uprooted Vignesh’s middle stump, the same delivery castling Rajamani Jesuraj a short while later. Mosharraf Hossain meanwhile had accounted for Harvey.

Russel Arnold’s splendid 42 in as many balls (2x4, 2x6) combined with Hemanth Kumar’s 21, saw the southpaw duo steer the Chennai side well within sight of victory. A seemingly shorter and sixer-friendly boundary line saw 10 big hits over the ropes in all.

Earlier, the Dhaka Warriors opted to bat, striker Shahriar Nafees setting up a fine start, cracking two boundaries through cover and extra cover off Jesuraj in the opening over. He dispatched Nantie Hayward to the cover fence again, but the straight drive off Jesuraj was right out of the copy book.

Trying a big hit, Nafees holed out to Syed Mohammed in the point region. Aftab Ahmed then helped himself to three boundaries and a flicked six off Vignesh in next to no time, as the Bangladesh side posted its half-century in 4.6 overs. Nazimuddin and Aftab enjoyed a reprieve each, courtesy Harish and Jesuraj respectively.

An adventurous Aftab, attempting a reverse sweep, was foxed by left-arm spinner and ‘Man of the Match’ Syed Mohammed.

The Chennai attack thereon curbed the batsmen considerably, going into dominant mode, as Tamil Kumaran dismissed Warriors’ skipper Habibul Bashar and Alok Kapali in quick succession. The Warriors’ 100 came up in 14.4, the duo of Dhiman Ghosh and Farhad Reza holding out for a while, before Farhad fell.

The scores: Dhaka Warriors 142 for six in 20 overs (Aftab Ahmed 30, Tamil Kumaran two for 25, G. Vignesh two for 25) lost to Chennai Superstars 148 for four in 18 overs (G. Vignesh 25, Ian Harvey 28, Russel Arnold 42 not out).

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