The fifth match of the ICL 20s Indian Championship witnessed the in form Chandigarh Lions edge Mumbai Champs by two wickets in a low-scoring game at the LB Stadium in Hyderabad on Monday.
Lions' Sarabjit Singh (41 not out) was declared Man of the Match for his unbeaten knock of 41.
Earlier in the evening, Lions' skipper Chris Cairns won the toss and elected to field. The experienced Daryl Tuffey got the breakthrough almost immediately, taking out the Champs skipper Nathan Astle. He struck again sending back the dangerous Raviraj Patil to the Champs dugout without troubling the scorers.
A middle order collapse -- Hasan Raza (8) and Taufeeq Umar (17) -- left the Mumbai innings in absolute tatters at 36 for 4 by the eighth over. A 28-run partnership between Kiran Powar and Robin Morris looked promising till the experienced Dinesh Mongia trapped Morris in the 12th over, leaving Mumbai struggling at 64 for 5.
Powar scored a gritty 45 off 42 balls including five fours and one six but the Champs could manage only 135 for 6 in their allotted 20 overs.
The Champs bowlers came out firing all cylinders and some controlled seam bowling saw Michael Kasprowicz strike early sending back the dashing Lou Vincent (1) and then trapping TP Singh in the fourth over to make the match wide open.
Astle brought himself on in the seventh over and it was just the tonic the Champs needed. The captain scalped three wickets, including the wicket of the dangerous Matthew Elliott (38) leaving the Lions in deep trouble at 55 for 5 in the 10th over.
Astle took out his Lions counterpart Cairns as his fourth victim to finish with impressive figures of 4 for 19.
With five overs to go, the Lions were placed at 85 for 6, needing another 51 runs off 30 balls.
A spirited seventh wicket partnership of 56 runs between Sarabjit and Andrew Hall did the trick.
