Chennai, 15th March 2024: Chennai Singams roared into the semi-finals of the Indian Street Premier League (ISPL) with a spirited defence, comprehensively winning their last round-robin T10 match against Falcon Risers Hyderabad by 13 runs. Having managed to score 93 in their ten overs, Chennai responded with a scintillating show with the ball and in the field to restrict their opponents to just 80 and finish fourth in the points table.
Jadeja, Binjwa strike
Dilip Binjwa (4-16) and Rajdeep Jadeja (3-19) were the chief wreckers for Chennai, while V Vignesh (0-6) and Farman Khan (1-5) proved to be the hardest to get away. Jadeja never allowed the Hyderabad pursuit to get going, striking twice in the second over and once in the fourth over to leave the chasing side reeling on 22 for 3. His third wicket was the crucial one of Hyderabad skipper Krishna Satpute, caught in the deep while trying to hit his third six in the over.
There was no respite for Hyderabad as Chennai kept coming hard at them. It was Binjwa’s turn to torment Hyderabad now, with double-strikes in both his overs. He dismissed Vishwajit Thakur and Shreyas Kadam off successive deliveries in the sixth over, and removed Prathamesh Thakre and Varun Kumar in the eighth. Varun’s dismissal for 22 off 12 all but ended Hyderabad’s fight. They could not manage a single big hit towards the finish as Farman and Vishwanath Jadhav subdued the lower order, the former bowling a wicket-maiden in the ninth over.
50-50 challenge
One of the unique aspects of the ISPL is the 50-50 challenge. A batting team sets themselves a target of a minimum of 16 runs and chooses who should bowl from the opposition team. If the batting team achieves or exceeds the target, 50 per cent more runs are added. For example, if a team scores 20 runs, they will get 30 runs for that over and if they score 10 runs, they will get only five runs.
Jadhav conceded exactly 16 in the 50-50 challenge in the seventh over of the chase, the result being that 24 were added to Hyderabad’s total. But he came back strongly in the last over, giving away just seven runs and also picking up a wicket to end Hyderabad’s chances.
Earlier, a 71-run second-wicket stand between Ketan Mhatre and Sagar Ali gave Chennai a solid platform, but they could not generate a big finish.
BRIEF SCORES: Chennai Singams 93-6 in 10 overs (Sagar Ali 44, Ketan Mhatre 27) beat Falcon Risers Hyderabad 80-9 in 10 overs (Varun Kumar 22; Dilip Binjwa 4-16, Rajdeep Jadeja 3-19) by 13 runs
