Live India Cricket

Oct 23, 2008, Thu (ICL Match 20) Delhi Giants beat Lahore Badshahs by six wickets with nine balls to spare in a day and night encounter at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Gurgaon on Sunday.

Ali Murtuza’s brilliants display of bowling, which bagged him four wickets of four overs, and Abbas Ali’s gritty knock of 52 helped Giants cruise to a victory over Badshahs.  

Chasing a target of 148, Delhi Giants Giants lost openers Marvan Atapattu and Monish Mishra quickly with only 23 on the board.

But, Ali, who played a gritty knock in the company of Abhinav Bali as both put on 80 runs for the fourth wicket, put his team on the path to victory.

Bali unbeaten on 47, started cautiously, also grew in confidence in the company of Ali.

Lahore Badshahs, who elected to bat after wining the toss, got off to an unimpressive start, losing wickets at regular intervals.

Giants spinner Ali Murtuza was responsible for the downslide of Badshahs as he sent four out of their top five batsmen back to the pavilion early.

The in-form batsmen off Imran Nazir (12), Imran Farhat (16) and skipper Inzamm-ul-Haq (12) disappointed the holiday crowd.

Badshahs were 63 for five off 12.1 overs when it looked like the Pakistan side were out of the match.

But, all-rounder Azhar Mahmood (67) counterattacked and came up with a spectacular unbeaten knock, which came off 39 balls and contained five sixes and five fours.

He was ably supported by wicketkeeper Hafiz Khalid (20), with whom he put on 84 runs off 7.5 overs.

They took Badshahs to a respectable total of 147 for 5 off the stipulated 20 overs.

Taduri Sudhindra proved to be the most expensive bowler for Giants as he conceded 52 runs of four overs.  

After openers departed quickly, Dhruv Mahajan (19) flattered to deceive as he was bowled by Shahid Nazir.

The Giants scoreboard read 52 for three of 5.3 overs at this stage, before the fourth wicket partnership of Ali-Bali wrapped up the match for them.

Ali Murtuza was named the ‘man of the match’.