ICL T20: Champs get first win

Panchkula:

Call it irony, but the much-fancied Mumbai Champions team registered their first win in the Indian Cricket League (ICL)'s Twenty20 championship on Monday on a day when their captain and star player Brian Lara did not bat.

The Champs, already knocked out of the tournament's semi-final line up after their fourth successive defeat Sunday, beat Kolkata Tigers by 7 runs to get their first win in the tournament.

The Champs, who won the toss, scored 187 runs for the loss of just three wickets with useful contributions from S N Khanolkar (64 runs from 39 balls) and Subhojit Paul (50 runs from 41 balls).

Lara, who failed to click in the entire tournament with a string of poor scores of 0, 4, 3 and 9 runs, did not come out to bat at all.

In reply, Kolkata Tigers, who had a good start from its top five batsmen, could not chase the target of 188 runs - falling short by 7 runs - as their team ran out of overs. The Tigers lost nine wickets.

New Zealander Nathan Astle took 3 wickets for 26 runs for the Champs.

The Champs got their first two points in the championship.

Brief Scores:

Mumbai Champs - 187 runs for 3 wickets in 20 overs.

Batting: S.N. Khanolkar - 64 runs from 39 balls, Subhojit Paul - 50 runs from 41 balls.

Bowling - Lance Klusener - 2 wickets for 29 runs.

Kolkata Tigers - 180 runs for 9 wickets from 20 overs
Batting: A.A. Jhunjhunwala 32 runs from 22 balls.
Bowling: Nathan Astle - 3 wickets for 26 runs.

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