Superstars humbles Tigers to storm in final

Panchkula:

Chennai Superstars' Rajagopal Sathish (51) wielded the willow in style and then bowled with a golden arm to beat Kolkata Tigers by 93 runs and take his team into the summit clash of the Indian Cricket League's maiden Twenty20 tournament.

After scoring 167, Chennai Superstars bundled out Tigers for a paltry 74 in 15.3 overs to win the semifinal encounter comfortably.

Tigers made a mess of their run chase, right from the start, losing wickets at regular intervals and were ultimately bundled out for the lowest total of the tournament.

Barring Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (18) and A S Jain (18), no other batsman of the Tigers made it to the double figures.

Man-of-the match Sathish along with Ian Harvey, D T Kumaran and Thiru Kumaran took two wickets each.

Former Pakistani medium-pacer Shabeer Ahmed opened the floodgates after dismissing opener Darren Maddy (9) and finished with magical figures of 3-1-5-1.

D T Kumaran removed the other opener Deep Dasgupta (1) and then Sathish got into the act sending back Rajiv Kumar (8) leaving Tigers tottering at 3-31.

Kumaran pulled off a sensational catch along the boundary line off Thiru Kumaran to send back skipper Craig Macmillan (6).

All rounder Lance Klusener (4) was also sent packing by Sathish leaving the Tigers gasping at 5-52.

Rest of the team disintegrated like a pack of cards and in the end handing down a much easy win to the Superstars, who had earlier won their three league matches of the tournament on the trot.

Earlier, electing to bat, the Superstars after being six down in the 15th over were bailed out by Sathish.
The-26-year-old right-handed all-rounder from Tamil Nadu struck a 24-ball 51, fully entertaining, with his mighty hits the modest crowd, which had turned up to watch the match despite very cold weather conditions.

Sathish's knock was studded with three sixes and six boundaries and he weaved a 61-run partnership for the seventh wicket with S V Sarvanan, who also struck a quick-fire unbeaten 24 in 16 balls.

He started hammering the Tigers bowlers showing little respect for Lance Klusener, Macmillan and Darren Maddy.

As runs started coming freely for the Superstars, Macmillan finally got the breakthrough in the 19th over when he had Sathish caught out.

Once he was back, the tail-enders packed up quickly leaving a ball to spare.

On Saturday, Chandigarh Lions will meet Delhi Jets in the second semi-final.