Tigers bt Rockets in rain-curtailed match

Hyderabad, Mar 22 (UNI) Kolakata Tigers beat Ahmedabad Rockets by eight wickets in a rain-marred match in the Edelweiss 20-20 Challenge here today.

After Rockets posted 156 for six in 20 overs, rain played spoilsport reducing it to a ten-over run chase, with the target revised to 85 in 10 overs.

The Rockets opened with a new combination, captain Martyn taking the onus upon him to open the innings with the explosive Hinds.

The move however was short-lived when the quick Hayward castled Martyn for only four. Hinds too did not last long, miscuing a pull shot to reduce the Rockets score card to 14 for two in the third over.

In the sixth over it was the young and impressive Parviz Aziz, who was battling it out for the Rockets, with four magnificent boundaries, placed them at 42 for two.

Just when his partnership with Goodwin was looking good, Aziz's little cameo came to an end in the eighth over for a well made 27, including six boundaries.

McMillan brought on his experienced spin spearhead Upul Chandana, in the ninth over and he responded immediately with the big breakthrough of Goodwin's wicket, reducing the Rockets scorecard to 58 for four at the end of the over.

The 100 for the Rockets came up in the 15th over with Anshu Jain and Sriram setting the launch pad for onslaught in the final overs.

They were working up a good partnership worth 66 runs off only 48 balls, till McMillan broke the partnership in form of Jain's wicket in the 19th over.

With the exception of a few audacious strokes from Sanjeev Martin in the last over, the inexperienced lower middle order could not capitalize on the launch pad.

The reply for the Tigers was opened by the dangerous Klusener and Subhomoy Das. Three cracking boundaries by Das, in Gillespie's first over set the tone for the Tigers chase.

Das's onslaught came to an end when the Rockets' quick Tamrakar picking him with a perfect yorker in the second over.

At the half way mark of their innings, the Tigers were right on target at 45 for one, needing 40 runs off 30 balls and nine wickets in hand.

Finally the Tigers hit the target with eight balls to spare.

Brief score: Ahmedabad Rockets 156/6 in 20 overs (Sriram 52, Aziz 27, A Adams 1/19) Kolkata Tigers 86/2 in 8.4 overs (Klusener 30, Das 17, Tamrakar 1/14) UNI XR/DB GKT RAR RN2034