Dhaka Warriors register a comfortable win

Panchkula: A brilliant all-round performance from the Dhaka Warriors saw them cruise to a comprehensive 13 run victory over Ahmedabad Rockets in the ICL20s Indian Championship at the Tau Devi Lal stadium here in Panchkula on Monday.

Rockets' skipper Damien Martyn won the toss and elected to field in a match that is crucial for both sides to remain in contention for a berth in the semi finals.

Warriors' formidable opening pair of Nazimuddin and Shahriar Nafees however failed to get off to their usual flying start as Jason Gillespie struck early with the wicket of Nafees in the second over itself.

But Aftab Ahmed and Nazimuddin took the attack to the famed Ahmedabad pace attack, and took the score to 43 in the fifth over before Heath Streak struck back with the wicket of Ahmed.

Thereafter, Gillespie came back for a second spell in the 10th over and got into the act right away picking up the big wicket of Nazimuddin, cutting short his half-century by 2 runs.

Nazimuddin’s knock of 48 came off 29 balls, laced with 3 fours and 4 sixes.

In the middle overs, spinners -- Sumit Kalia and Sridharan Sriram however managed to check the run flow to an extend in the middle overs and that resulted in Sriram getting the big break as he castled Alok Kapali, ending his promising knock of 26 off 22 balls.

Sriram struck again getting the opposition skipper Habibul Bashar’s wicket to leave the Warriors in a bit of a bother at 128-5.

But Mahbubul Karim had some other plans and he took over the batting mantel playing a lovely cameo laced with some brilliant stroke play. Dhiman Ghosh also played the perfect foil to Karim in their brilliant sixth wicket partnership of 53 runs.

Gillespie scalped his third victim in form of Ghosh for a well made 18.

Karim was the standout batsman and his unbeaten knock was worth 45 runs off only 22 balls including 4 fours and 3 sixes.

In the end it was some brilliant aggressive batting studded with 15 fours and 10 sixes helped the Warriors reach a massive total of 182-7 in 20 overs.

For the Ahmedabad side it was again their old war horse Gillespie, who returned with the best figures of 3-29.

The Dhaka bowlers came out with purpose, bowling a disciplined line and not allowing any free leeway to the otherwise dangerous Ahmedabad openers. The pressure created by both Mohammad Sharif and Tapash Baisya yielded dividends with the big wicket of Ryan Campbell, who was castled by Baisya.

Goodwin however was battling it well at the other end and he scored 15 runs off Sharif's third over, to take the score to 48-1 at the end of 5 overs.

At the half way mark of their innings the Ahmedabad side was placed at 85-2 needing another 97 runs and the Martyn-Goodwin combination was looking solid.

In fact, Goodwin brought his fifty off just 37 balls, laced with 7 hits top the fence. But just when Goodwin was looking like running away from the match, Kapali struck, cutting short his brilliant innings of 59 and hence, also ending the 44-run partnership for the third wicket.

Mosharraf and Kapali bowled some crucial tight overs in the middle over stage to keep the pressure on the Rockets and the pressure soon got to Martyn, who was held on long on by Sharif off Mosharraf, for a well made 20 runs.

The Dhaka bowling, on the other hand was spot on and it destroyed the lower middle-order to leave the Rockets struggling at 131-7 at the end of the 17th over, leaving them with an almost impossible task of needing 51 runs off the last three overs.

In the end the Rockets could score only 168-8, falling short of their target by 13 runs.