The fourth match of the ICL 20s World Series featured the resurgent ICL India team, fresh from a fantastic victory over ICL Pakistani, take on the formidable ICL World at the Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday.
In the end the young ICL Indian boys outclassed their illustrious opponents in all departments of the game to register their second consecutive win by 44 runs.
World XI captain Chris Cairns won the toss and put the Indians into bat first on a wicket that was expected to play true for the entire duration of the game.
The Indians opened with their successful combination of the previous game, Ganapathi Vignesh and Ibrahim Khaleel. The openers carried their good form of the previous match into this game as well as they got off to a solid start.
However it was Michael Kasprowicz who had the last laugh, getting the first breakthrough in form of Khaleel's wicket with the penultimate ball of the third over. At the end of the third over the Indians were placed at 28/1.
Daryl Tuffey soon accounted for the dangerous Vignesh, to pull back the strong Indian start. At the half way stage of their innings the Indians were well placed at 92/3 with both Abbas Ali and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala playing some lovely strokes all around the park.
The partnership was working well for the Indians, worth over 50 runs at the twelfth over stage. The lovely partnership worth 76 runs finally came to an end in the fifteenth over with Kasprowicz accounting for the dangerous Abbas Ali for a well made 44.
With five overs to go the Indians were all set for the big onslaught, placed handsomely at 129/4. It was the young Stuart Binny who anchored the innings in the final overs taking the Indians to a formidable 163/8.
In reply the World XI got off to a slow start largely due of some tight bowling by the opening bowlers. At the end of the fourth over the World XI was placed at 21 for no loss.
Abu Nacheem was working some serious pace and got the reward as he knocked the stumps to dismiss the dangerous Lou Vincent for 8, leaving the World XI scorecard reading 28/1.
With the fall of Matthew Elliott's wicket in the sixth over the ICL World were in trouble at 30/2.
The Indians were putting up a splendid display with the ball restricting the ICL World batsmen to just singles and they also cut off the boundaries. At the half way mark of their innings the World XI were placed at 55/3, needing another 109 off just 60 balls at nearly 11 runs per over.
Captain Rajagopal Sathish brought on his premiere spinner Ali Murtaza in the twelfth over who got into the act taking two wickets in three balls to leave the World XI scorecard reading a dismal 57/5.
A complete batting collapse faded even the slightest of chance that the World XI had in reaching the big target.
In the end it turned out to be India's night and a magnificent effort in the field saw them register a big 44-run victory.
Brief scores: ICL India 163/8 in 20 overs (Abbas Ali 44, Jhunjhunwala 27, Kasprowicz 2/39) won by 44 runs against ICL World 119/8 in 20overs (Atapattu 20, Elliott 19, Murtaza 2/19)
