Chasing a huge score of 170runs in 20 overs, Cricket360 could not find the required zeal in the approach of Mumbai Champs when they came to bat in the 2nd half of the 11th ICL match against Royal Bengal Tigers. The very first ball itself was referred to 3rd umpire by Tiger’s captain McMillan as he doubted an inside edge of T. Omar. Though he was wrong in his assessment, the next delivery found Omar being trapped LBW by Nechim. Omar too was in doubt and wanted an intervention by the 3rd umpire which too went fruitless. Champs captain Astle was in good form as he opened the account with a tremendous square cut to get a boundary and another class placement to earn four more in succession. Even though he was determined to wrap up the game to register their first victory in the ICL Season 2, the duo couldn’t build up a steady partnership.

By the time the field restrictions were over, Champs were tottering around 40 runs ahead of a required run rate of 9.3 runs per over. Cricket360 noticed girls, dressed like angels, dancing when Astle was sent back by Adams in the 9th over after he scored a sporting 33 of 32 balls. Raza couldn’t contribute anything and in the first half of the innings Champs managed to pick only 66 runs for 3 wickets.

In the 14th over Jadhav couldn’t rectify his miscalculation of a single and before he could land home Klusner removed the bails. Spectators were expecting Vander Wath to repeat his miraculous performance in their last match against Rockets, but Cricket360 realizes, ‘miracles do seldom happen’. But a brave attempt by Wath and Paul found the Champs coming near to the target in the last overs. Aggressive Paul made a thrashing 32 runs in just 14 balls and added to it was Wath’s contribution of 35 of 19 balls. The sigh of relief was evident on the face of McMillan when Paul was returned back by Tarafdar when the score was 148/7. After Wath’s departure, Champs had little to offer and they were all out at 158 in the penultimate ball of the match.

Earlier, McMillan’s decision to bat first was proved correct as the openers provided a splendid start to the innings with 71 runs in first 9 overs without any causality. Except Kasprovich and Vander Wath, all the bowlers were smashed around the park by Marshal and Das Gupta. Gupta spotted a massive 32 of 25 balls and his partner, the highest run scorer in the ICL Season 2, Marshal once again piled up a fifty with three towering sixes. Iyer got rid of both the openers.

During the middle overs, Bengal Tigers could not take advantage of a striking start as they could make only 27 runs in the third quarter of the innings. The cards were turned upright by Rohan Gavaskar and Klusner in the last overs. Rohan sliced off Champ’s dreams of first ICL win by cracking 30 runs of just 12 balls supported by Klusner’s knock of 30 runs in 21 deliveries. The former was declared the man of the match and Cricket360 appreciates him for an eminent performance and also the Royal Bengal Tigers for procuring their third consecutive win in the ICL Season 2 .

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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