Rockets v Giants, 8th match, ICL

Giants stomp over sparkless Rockets

Cricinfo staff

March 16, 2008

Delhi Giants 111 for 1 (Gunawardene 55*) beat Ahmedabad Rockets 107 for 6 (Martyn 44) by nine wickets
Scorecard

Delhi Giants scored an easy win over Ahmedabad Rockets after being set a paltry target of 108 in Panchkula. Avishka Gunawardene was unbeaten on 55 as the Giants lost only one wicket and knocked off the runs in 15.3 overs.

The Rockets struggled right from the start, losing three wickets in the first four overs. TP Sudhindra got a wicket with his first ball as Sachin Dholpure inside-edged the delivery on to his stumps. Two run-outs pegged them back further: Wavell Hinds was caught short by an alert Ali Murtaza for 5 in the third over and Abhinav Bali knocked over Murray Goodwin's stumps in the next.

The 62-run fifth-wicket partnership between Damien Martyn and Sridharan Sriram revived the spluttering innings briefly, but the run-rate remained sluggish. Martyn tried to lift the momentum as he drove and pulled Shane Bond for two fours in an over. But Bond broke the partnership when he ran out Sriram for 32 in the 18th over.

Three balls later Martyn, the innings' highest scorer, was caught off Jai P Yadav. Reetinder Sodhi hit 11 off four balls to take the Rockets to 107. His six, slog-swept over midwicket off Yadav, was the only one of the innings.

The Giants raced to 66 in their first ten overs, and though they lost Monish Mishra for 18, Gunawardene was in fine attacking mode. He took medium-pacer Rakesh Patel for 17 runs in an over, which included two sixes and a four. Gunawardene also reached his fifty with a six in only 36 balls. At the end of 15 overs, the Giants needed just nine more to win, and Bali finished it off with three successive fours.

With this win, the Giants have four points and are on top of the table along with Lahore Badshahs, who have played a game less.

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