Heroes are the stars

It will be a repeat final in the ICL. The Heroes registered a thrilling three-wicket victory over Royal Bengal Tigers in the second semifinal of the ICL 20s Indian championship at Sardar Patel Stadium on Tuesday night to set up a title clash with Lahore Badshahs. The two had clashed in the final in March 2008.

The Hyderabad team commenced their chase for 162 reply on a positive note with Jimmy Maher and Ibrahim Khaleel giving back Lance Klusener his own medicine and punishing Andre Adams for loose bowling. The duo took the score to 43 in the fifth over. Just when it looked they were headed for a big partnership Maher (14) fell to Klusener. In same over Khaleel (32) was deceived by slow delivery.

Ambati Rayudu (14) and Abdul Razzaq (24) held the Hyderabad innings together and took the score to 88. But two quick strikes by leggie Upul Chandana made Harris scratch his head. However, leaving up to his reputation of all-rounder, Stuart Binny (45) fashioned the comeback with some delightful sixes off Chandana. When he left the scene, Chris Harris and KS Sahabuddin had to score six runs off last over which the Heroes’ captain did with a boundary off Chandana.

Earlier, Klusener gave glimpse of his batting style and Rohan Gavaskar showed his other side of his batting as the two southpaws took Royal Bengal Tigers to a competitive total of 161 for 4 against Hyderabad Heroes. The South African scored unbeaten 78 while Gavaskar had 74 against his name. Harris’ decision to field first paid dividends when pacer Sahabuddin took a catch off his follow through to send opener Deep Dasgupta (1) back to the dug out in the second over of the match. Klusener, sent up the order, was involved in terrible mix-up with Hamish Marshall (5).