Marvan Atapattu's captain's knock of 75 powered Delhi Jets to a five-wicket win over Kolkata Tigers in the third place playoff in the Indian Cricket League Twenty20 Championship in Panchkula (Haryana) on Sunday.
Needing 142 to win, Atapattu hit 75 off 56 balls, which included ten boundaries and a six, and stayed unbeaten to ensure his side romp home in 19.1 overs.
In the process, the Lankan beat Chandigarh Lions' Imran Farhat (74) to register the highest individual score in the tournament so far.
Atapattu, declared man-of-the-match, held one end intact as the Jets lost wickets at regular intervals. Apart from the Lankan import, Syed Abbas Ali (25) of the Delhi team was the only batsman to make an impact.
For the Tigers, Eklak Ahmed took two wickets for 31 runs.
With this win, the Jets got Rs 1.5 crore as prize money, while the Tigers took home Rs 1.25 crore.
Earlier, put in to bat, the Tigers lost Parviz Aziz, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Anshu Jain cheaply. However, opener Deep Dasgupta tried to revive the innings by scoring 28 off 25 balls, studded with five boundaries.
The former India stumper's stay in the middle was curtailed by Jai Prakash Yadav, who had Dasgupta caught by Dhruv Mahajan.
Rajiv Kumar (23) was the fifth wicket to fall as he went for a mighty hit off Abhinav Bali only to be caught by Yadav.
At one stage Kolkata Tigers, who were playing in the absence of their star players Darren Maddy and Lance Klusener and 18-year-old Assam bowler Sujay Tarafdar, found themselves tottering on 6 for 80 in 15 overs.
But, Shiv Sagar Singh (33 off 20 balls) and skipper Craig MacMillan (27) launched a late charge to take the score past the 140-mark.
