Leading from the front, Hyderabad Heroes’ skipper Chris Harris played a match-winning innings against Dhaka Warriors at the Lal Bahadur Shastri stadium last night.

Batting first Dhaka Warriors got to a shaky start by losing two wickets in the very first over. However, the capable Aftab Ahmed scored a quickfire 24 runs off 11 balls with 4 fours and 1 huge six, before throwing his wicket to medium pacer Binny. At the end of nine overs, Warriors lost half of their team for the score of 57 runs. Alok Kapali who scored the first century (100 runs, 60 balls, 11 fours, 5 sixes) of ICL this season, added a crucial 97 runs for the sixth wicket with D Ghosh. The Warriors innings finally come to end at a competitive 168/9 in their allotted 20 overs.

Chasing a victory target of 169 runs, the home team lost their batsmen at regular intervals. Openers Abdul Razzak and Jimmy Maher scored 27 and 21 respectively. Local hero Ambati Rayudu and South African hitter Justin Kemp could not add too much for their teams. Rayudu scored 10 while Kemp could score only 5 runs. 

Requiring 13 runs in the last over to win, Harris hit a four, a six and again a four in three consecutive balls to guide his team to success. Harris remain unbeaten on 37 runs off 17 balls with 5 fours and 1 six. Boje also chipped with an impressive 31 runs off 32 balls. 

Scores in Brief: 

Dhaka Warriors 168/9 (Alok Kapali 100; Nicky Boje 3/20, Abdul Razzaq 3/28) lost to Hyderabad Heroes 171/6 (Chris Harris 37 not out, Nicky Boje 31, Stuart Binny 30, M Hossain 1/24).