Thane, 14th March 2024: Chennai Singams fought right till the end but went down off the penultimate ball to Srinagar Ke Veer by three wickets in a thrilling Indian Street Premier League (ISPL) T10 match at the Dadoji Kondadev Stadium here on Tuesday.
Defending a total of 109 for 7, Chennai kept taking wickets at regular intervals in the chase but could not prevent Srinagar from qualifying for the semi-finals.
Bablu Patil swings big
After Srinagar chose to bowl, Bablu Patil injected momentum into the Chennai innings with a blistering 37 off just 10 deliveries at No 5. Coming in when Chennai needed some big hits at 44 for 3 into the seventh over, Patil swung five sixes off his blade. Standing outside the off stump, Patil pounced on the full deliveries and swung them high and square on the leg side.
Opener Sagar Ali contributed 21 off 15 with three sixes, while Dilip Binjwa, V Vignesh and Aniket Sanap cracked a six each towards the end of the innings to help Chennai cross the 100-run mark.
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.
Chennai just missed besting their 50-50 challenge, scoring 15 off the over, and getting seven deducted from their total. They throttled Srinagar in the 50-50 challenge during the chase, with Vishwanath Jadhav conceding just four runs while striking off consecutive deliveries, as Srinagar could add only two to their total.
Vignesh strikes early
Vignesh had got Chennai off to a rousing start in their defence, taking two wickets in the opening Tape Ball over with massive inswing. But Lokesh revived the Srinagar chase with 49 off 26, including five sixes.
With 16 runs needed off the last over, Binjwa conceded a couple of sixes but also removed Lokesh and Deepak Dogra. However, with three needed off two, No 9 Rajesh Sorte hit the first ball he faced for a straight four.
Chennai face Falcon Risers Hyderabad in their crucial last league match on Wednesday.
Brief scores: Chennai Singams 109-7 in 10 overs (Bablu Patil 37, Sagar Ali 21; Bhushan Gole 3-30) lost to Srinagar Ke Veer 111-7 in 9.5 overs (L. Lokesh 49, Mohammed Nadeem 24; Dilip Binjwa 3-35, V Vignesh 2-6, Vishwanath Jadhav 2-15) by three wickets.