Sudhindra guides Giants to victory

Gurgaon: Owing to an exceptional bowling by Taduri Sudhindra, Delhi Giants managed to get the better of Hyderabad Heroes by seven runs in the Twenty20 match of the ICL championship at the Tau Devi Lal stadium here on Monday.

Although, Giants faltered after opting to bat first, as a four-wicket haul by Abdul Razzaq (4-23) restricted them to a modest 137 for 8 in their alloted 20 overs, but, in the battle of brilliant bowling from both the teams, Giants had the last laugh.

Defending a small target of 138 runs, Sudhindra (3-25) took three quick wickets as he ran through the Heroes' top-order, alongwith Ali Murtaza, who also claimed one victim to reduce the Heroes to 4-17 in the 5th over.

Heroes' lost opener Sahshank Nag (3) in the second over itself as he gave a simple catch to Bali off the bowling of Sudhindra.

The pacer struck yet again in his very next over to remove Anirudh Singh (3). He picked up his third wicket in the form of Ambati Rayudu (3).

Murtaza then saw off Nicky Boje (2) in the next over to give Giants a real chance of victory in this match.

But Justin Kemp and Stuart Binny led the Heroes' fight back. And all of a sudden, the duo changed the course of the match completely by getting into their groove quickly as they started smashing the bowlers all around the park.

Kemp was more dominant of the two as he opened his arms from the word go, playing his strokes well. And soon after, even Binny started to match his partner's stroke-making abilities.

And just when the two of them were threatening to run away with the match, New Zealand's Shane Bond gave the Giants the much-needed breakthrough by returning the Kemp back to the pavilion for a well-made 33 off 31 balls, studded with 2 boundaries and a six.

But it was not before he and Binny shared a valuable, quickfire 61-run stand off 54 balls.

This, though, once again gave a glimpse of hope to the Giants who were defending a small total. However, Binny continued with his thrashing, even though at the other end, Heroes lost couple of more wickets quickly.

And in the last over, when the match was still wide open, Mahajan came to Giant's rescue by claiming Binny's wicket, who made a fine 41-ball 50, hitting 5 fours.

And ultimately, the Heroes could only manage to score 130 for 8 in 20 overs, falling 7 runs short.

Earlier, the Giants lost opener Mohnish Mishra early but Avishka Gunawardene (28) and Dhruv Mahajan (36) shared a solid 61-run first wicket partnership as they make slow but steady progress.

However, Giants lost both these batsman in the space of just one over when the scoreboard read a decent 83 in 12.3 overs and that suddendly slowed down their scoring rate even more.

Bowlers then started to dominate the proceeding completely and while, Abbas Ali (16) and Abhinav Bali (12) got the start but failed to convert them.

Thereafter, Abdul Razzaq took four quick wickets to reduce the Giants from 4-113 to 7-121 and finally could just manage to reach 137 in their alloted 20 overs.

Teams:

Delhi Giants: Avishka Gunawardene, Marvan Atapattu (capt), Shane Bond, Abbas Ali, Abhinav Bali, Ali Murtaza, Dhruv Mahajan, Dishant Yagnik, Jai Prakash Yadav, Mohnish Mishra, Taduri Sudhindra.

Hyderabad Heroes: Nicky Boje, Justin Kemp, Abdul Razzaq, Chris Harris (capt), Ambati Rayudu, Anirudh Singh, Ibrahim Khaleel, Inder Shekhar Reddy, Shashank Nag, Stuart Binny, Alfred Absolem.