ICL India lift Twenty20 World Series title

Hyderabad: So, it’s not all about batting and muscle power. Often a good fielding effort does the star turn in Twenty20; ask ICL India.

Keeping the bowling simple and effective, fielding like a sprightly lot and seizing the big moments, ICL India defended 148 against ICL World to lift the Indian Cricket League’s T20 World Series title at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Hyderabad.

Chris Cairns-led ICL World never got the big over when it mattered and eventually fell 10 runs short of the total.

The World XI got off to an encouraging start despite losing Matthew Elliot early. The Indians looked jittery when Damien Martyn and Lou Vincent, involved in a second-wicket 52-run stand, were threatening to take it away.

It wasn’t that Vincent’s dismissal in the 11th over gave the Indians some respite, for the setting was apt for Cairns to pull the bull by the horns.

At the halfway mark, World XI needed 75 runs off 60 balls with Martyn and Cairns braced for the assault. It was at this stage that ICL India slipped in some tight overs and gave it all in the field.

Jamaluddin Syed Mohammed, who earlier snared Vincent, kept a tight leash on the pair giving away merely 10 runs in his four overs.

The pair however collected the odd boundary setting up an interesting finish. All that changed in the space of two overs.

Both Cairns and Martyn (who top scored with 60) were run-out, kudos to some sharp, alert fielding in the circle. Russel Arnold and Marvan Atapattu have the experience but not the brawn to knock off 35 runs that World XI required in 12 balls.

Johan van der Wath struck a few lusty blows towards the end but it was always going to be beyond the World XI’s lower-order.